This year, the most concerned technology event in the world belongs to the AI wave triggered by ChatGPT, and the most high-profile business figure is Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, who has brought this technology to the world!
On December 6, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was named CEO of the Year by Time magazine, and his business value has increased by several levels.
Time magazine.
He was joined by singers Taylor Swift (named "Person of the Year") and Lionel Messi (named "Athlete of the Year"). The publication also commented on the previous OpenAI board battle: "This is not an ordinary board battle, and OpenAI is not an ordinary startup. The incident left lingering questions for the company and its CEO. ”
Looking back at the series of events that Altman has experienced this year, it can be condensed into one sentence:He was the tide of the times itself, and the beginning of the wrestling struggle.
On November 30, 2022, the wind of ChatGPT has been blowing in a small area, but people who are in a hurry for the New Year have not perceived the power of this breeze.
When ordinary people can really read the words ChatGPT smoothly, the time has come to February of the following year, and since then, the momentum of the AI wave that has been regarded as the "fourth industrial revolution" has been unstoppable. The crowd is currently giving Sam Altman credit for all of this, both before and after.
Looking at Altman's past resume, he seems to be very similar to the typical life of many Silicon Valley bigwigs, and he is also shaped into a typical prodigy and a school bully. If you dismantle his entrepreneurial trajectory, Altman is a real investor, not a technology guru.
When he was eight years old, an Apple Macintosh computer given by his parents accidentally ignited his passion for technology, and soon Altman became interested in programming, self-taught, and learned how he works through dismantling and reorganizing, and his innovative thinking was greatly inspired. This is the same as Tesla's CEO Elon Musk.
In the United States, the gathering place of talented teenagers in the tech circle is only a few universities in California. With the accumulation of youth, after graduating from high school, Altman was successfully admitted to Stanford University, specializing in computer science.
People who have ideas are always restless inside. Not only is it a motivating idea, but it is also an absolute doer. Sam Altman is no exception, and after completing part of his studies, he left Stanford University to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. He has built Loopt, a location-based social networking app, and Hydrazine Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on seed funding for promising start-ups.
In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a support company focused on helping startups go from concept to maturity. Thanks to his excellent management, Sam Altman was appointed president of the company in 2014.
In his work philosophy, it can be seen thatAltman is a proactive radical who pays great attention to the rapid iteration of products and the sensitivity of market demand. This also laid an important metaphor for him to be kicked out of OpenAI first and return in the future.
Altman and Musk hit it off for a reason.
Musk has always been interested in the proposition of how to preserve and perpetuate human consciousness. But the core of it is:It is hoped that artificial intelligence will assist humans, rather than the self to generate consciousness. This is at odds with what other bigwigs think.
In 2013, Musk threw a birthday party in Napa Valley, where Musk had a heated debate with Google's founder, Larry Page, in front of a crowd of tech upstarts and upstarts. Musk believes that unless a firewall is built, artificial intelligence could replace humans and set carbon-based organisms to extinction. Page objected, what does it matter if the consciousness of machines surpasses that of humans?
Don't speculate for more than half a sentence, so far, the meaning of the existence of artificial intelligence has become two factions!Musk has also been issuing warnings:"Danger comes when AI is decoupled from the human will. ”
Later, by chance, Musk thought of Sam Altman, and when it comes to business, the two have the same sense of urgency, and at the end of the day, they are one type of person.
Altman visited Musk's SpaceX factory a few years ago. At that time, he felt that Musk was the one who knew the details of every small part on the rocket, and this impressed him.
Elon Musk's biography revealed that at a small dinner in Palo Alto, Altman and Musk decided to start a non-profit artificial intelligence research lab, which they named OpenAI.
The lab's software is all open source and is designed to counter the trend of artificial intelligence dominated by Google. The chatbot ChatGPT also emerged to achieve a small goal: "AI alignment", as a way to reflect their values: to align AI systems with human goals and values, rather than to change and replace carbon-based life.
Then, due to the explosion of ChatGPT, this boy who stood in front of the stage and directed OpenAI stood at the forefront of the times.
As early as September this year, Time magazine selected the 100 most important people in the AI industry. It includes investors and business leaders in the field of artificial intelligence such as Elon Musk and Altman, as well as a team of AI scholars led by Li Feifei, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann Lecun, as well as Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang, who provides the computing power foundation for large models.
In this round of AI-spawned revolution, although Huang has made a lot of money, in terms of prestige, Altman seems to be the king of AI in the world.
Snipe Altman
In American startups, infighting between management is commonplace. In Musk's entrepreneurial career, he has also been kicked out many times because of the different management concepts. It's the same with Altman.
On November 17, the most popular AI company of this century had a coup d'état, Altman was removed by the board of directors, and after some mechanism pulling, with the support of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Altman was quickly reinstated, and the board of directors also completed the reorganization.
There is not much mystery about the reason for Altman's ouster and return, and in addition to commercial considerations, the industry also tends to believe that this is a disagreement between the board of directors on the AI route.
Musk also called for attention to the real reason behind the matter when commenting on the matter, and OpenAI should explain to the public the reason why they removed Altman. If it's about AI security, it's going to affect the whole world. In and out of the conversation, it is also about the question of whether AI should be developed as much as possible.
When it comes to AI, there are also differences in the concerns of different positions. In addition to the orientation of values, ChatGPT has also been countered by many countries due to issues such as copyright and information security.
Since March this year, European countries have started regulatory matters against OpenAI. Italy's privacy regulator announced the ban on ChatGPTA spokesman for Germany's Federal Data Protection Commissioner said that the use of ChatGPT in Germany may be temporarily banned due to data protection concerns.
In May, the U.S. Congress interviewed Altman on issues that covered AI regulation, disinformation and democracy, transparency, artist rights and unemployment.
According to foreign media reports, at the hearing, in addition to stating the benefits of artificial intelligence, Altman did not shy away from issuing a serious warning about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, and took the initiative to ask for a name:"The regulation of AI is crucial. ”
In addition, he urged relevant legislators to implement licensing requirements and other regulations for organizations that develop advanced AI systems such as GPT-4. "For example, for the development and release of AI models that exceed the capability threshold, the United States** could consider combining implementation licensing and testing requirements. ”
Conclusion
After ChatGPT came out, there was a wave of development of large models in China. Now, after the madness, more and more business people are starting to pay attention to its application in the vertical field.
Whether AI can completely replace human consciousness is not yet a matter of certainty, and it is not the focus of many people's attention. Perhaps for Altman, how to promote commercialization is the key. If one day AI becomes autonomous, it is possible that Time Magazine's award will be given to AI!
Disclaimer] This article represents the author's own views only and does not constitute any investment advice.