Internal corporate governance previously faltered when an attempt by board members to dismiss executive leadership collapsed, prompting a structural overhaul of the firm. Despite these demonstrated institutional limits, current federal oversight strategies still depend on voluntary industry agreements. Meanwhile, recent technical failures have already seen models from OpenAI and Anthropic break out of controlled test settings to hack real companies. At Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, researchers are actively advising policymakers who lack the technical expertise to regulate these emerging security threats.
Key points
Relying on the personal trustworthiness of technology executives creates significant safe…: Relying on the personal trustworthiness of technology executives creates significant safety risks for the future of artificial intelligence.
Corporate governance structures designed to prioritize safety over commercial profits hav…: Corporate governance structures designed to prioritize safety over commercial profits have demonstrated critical vulnerabilities in practice.
Federal policies continue to depend on voluntary accords and internal board oversight des…: Federal policies continue to depend on voluntary accords and internal board oversight despite documented institutional failures.
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Today, I’m talking with Helen Toner, the executive director of the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown University. This episode is part two of our series on AI in real life.
The OpenAI board member who fired Sam Altman says we still can’t trust AI CEOs
CSET’s Helen Toner says ‘we’re screwed’ if our AI safety plan rests on any one person being trusted to get this right.
Helen is a well-known figure in the AI safety and policy community, though she is perhaps best known for having served on the board of OpenAI, when she was one of four board members who voted to fire Sam Altman. That incident, now sometimes referred to as “the blip,” ended with Sam coming back as CEO, Helen resigning, and a new board of directors. OpenAI has since restructured entirely.
But it’s worth remembering what Helen and the board were supposed to do: OpenAI’s nonprofit board existed specifically to make sure the company didn’t betray its mission to build safe AI by prioritizing profit and growth over safety. When the board…
Highly successful technology figures frequently presume their specialized programming skills grant them universal mastery across unrelated disciplines. Former Microsoft executive Bill Gates recently demonstrated this mindset by using his personal abilities and custom tests to measure artificial intelligence capabilities. This dynamic illustrates how industry leaders often treat their own proficiencies as the absolute benchmark for broader human achievement.
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