OpenAI Bolsters Fortifications at San Francisco Base After Receiving Alleged Activist’s Warnings – It’s Not Robocalypse…Yet!
“OpenAI Locks Down San Francisco Offices Following Alleged Threat From Activist”
“In 2015, the research lab OpenAI was established. Its goal: ‘Ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity.’ OpenAI aimed to directly build a safe and beneficial AGI or, failing that, to aid others in achieving the aim.” Here’s a lion-hearted tech-savior pledged to create futuristic technology, to foster advancements, or at least to support such efforts all in a bid to serve the benefit of humankind.
OpenAI’s close call with office lockdown threats has stirred up some commotion in the San Francisco region. With so abounding a thirst to fuel the science of tomorrow, can one imagine that this tech goliath was almost confined within the proverbial four walls? Well, there’s never a dull day in the tech world.
As the global pandemic turned the tables for industries worldwide, the usually buzzing OpenAI office found itself on the edge of imposition of lockdowns. Being considered as an “essential service”, rather humorously, the institution survived the trip to Locked-ville. Images of robots running amok, completing daily chores and cracking the code of life during a pandemic is not just intriguing but also spiraling into becoming a reality, thanks to these tireless digital soldiers.
The question that arises here and is adding fuel to the burning curiosity is whether AI truly stands as an essential service in these dire times? Is it comparable to healthcare, food services and the emergency services working round-the-clock trying to overcome the challenging situation?
Who other than OpenAI would, despite a pandemic, continue to flirt with futuristic technology and string along AI models that might someday be the saviors of a crisis-hit world? Their hefty price tag GPT-3, ringing up to a whopping $12M, has been under a spotlight for its AI beauty. Still, it falls under scrutiny, considering whether the world truly requires models with such vast resources while humanity battles against a pandemic.
WIRED perfectly summed it up with its boarded-up windows analogy. Agreeably, it is hard to envisage a future wherein AI is prioritized over human lives. Yet, the world will smile upon the wonders it brings if AI proves instrumental in saving mankind from the clutch of a universal crisis.
One day at a time, that is how this tech giant takes its path into the future, working its “essential” magic covertly in the city by the bay. Through the thick red fog of a global crisis, would it be too wrong to hope that the next big thing from OpenAI might just save us all someday?