In July 2023, OpenAI unveiled a new team dedicated to ensuring that future AI systems that might be more intelligent than all humans combined could be safely controlled. To signal how serious the company was about this goal, it publicly promised to dedicate 20% of its then-available computing resources to the effort.
Now, less than a year later, that team, which was called Superalignment, has been disbanded amid staff resignations and accusations that OpenAI is prioritizing product launches over AI safety. According to a half dozen sources familiar with the functioning of OpenAI’s Superalignment team, OpenAI never fulfilled its commitment to provide the team with 20% of its computing power.
Instead, according to the sources, the team repeatedly saw its requests for access to graphics processing units, the specialized computer chips needed to train and run AI applications, turned down by OpenAI’s leadership, even though the team’s total compute budget never came close to the promised 20% threshold.
The revelations call into question how serious OpenAI ever was about honoring its public pledge, and whether other public commitments the company makes should be trusted. OpenAI did not respond to requests to comment for this story.
