OpenAI's chief scientist calls for AI slowdown — contradicting company's own report

OpenAI's chief scientist has made a surprise call for the broader industry to slow down AI development.

Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI's chief scientist, wrote in an essay titled "An Alien Mind" posted Sunday (local time) on OpenAI's website that "no one is prepared for the consequences" of machine intelligence continuing to advance at its current rapid pace, according to Yonhap.

He described modern AI as something that is "grown rather than designed" — developing more like a living organism than a product built to human specifications, which makes full control difficult.

Pachocki pushed back against the industry argument that AI development must continue in order to build adequate defenses, saying that rationale "should not be used as a pretext to justify reckless behavior." He added that no laboratory has yet adequately solved the "alignment" problem — ensuring AI refuses actions that threaten humans — and said he "hopes and expects that voluntary slowdowns will become the norm until shared safeguards are in place."

CEO Sam Altman shared Pachocki's essay on X, formerly Twitter, calling it "an important piece."

However, a separate "research acceleration" report OpenAI released that day contained somewhat contradictory content. In the report, OpenAI said it had achieved its goal of creating an "automated AI research intern" capable of improving its own AI systems and writing code, and set a target of developing a full "automated AI researcher" by March 2028.

The report also argued that such automated AI research could actually help solve the alignment problem. It added, however, that "this does not mean rapid recursive self-improvement (RSI) is necessarily something to pursue," and that "whether and how to proceed should be a matter of democratic choice."

Sanders to introduce bill for permanent ban on superintelligent AI

Meanwhile, a move to permanently ban superintelligent AI has emerged in the US political arena.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent-Vermont), a leading figure of the American progressive movement, is preparing legislation that would ban the development and use of superintelligent AI and halt development of cutting-edge AI models until a government agency is established to monitor AI capabilities and identify potential risks, according to Axios.

Sanders defined superintelligent AI as any system with cognitive abilities surpassing those of humans.

In a post on X, he said: "If the leaders of major AI companies admit they are losing control of an extremely dangerous technology, it is irresponsible to allow them to advance their products further. We must immediately halt the development of advanced AI and permanently ban superintelligent AI that could operate independently beyond our control. The future of humanity should not be left in the hands of a few Big Tech overlords."

yul@heraldcorp.com