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Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive officer, visited the University of Michigan’s Rackham Auditorium Thursday evening for a fireside chat. Altman discussed the future of artificial intelligence and OpenAI’s new AI model — also released Thursday — to an audience of about 1,000 U-M students. The event was hosted by the College of Engineering and moderated by Dan Feder, managing director of the U-M Investment Office.
OpenAI’s new series of AI, called o1-preview, is designed to give nuanced responses to complex problems, particularly ones related to science, coding and math. The model, which focuses on refining thinking processes and trying different strategies before giving a response, is currently being previewed by ChatGPT users and in OpenAI’s application programming interface.
Altman’s ties to the University are not new. The University has invested in Altman’s venture capital firm, Hydrazine Capital, twice — first with a $105 million investment in 2023, and a second $75 million investment to the same firm later that year.
After announcing the launch of o1-preview, nicknamed “Strawberry,” Altman explained his team’s motivation to build on their groundbreaking AI model.
“When we finished GPT-4, one of the things we were most excited about is … can we use this thing we’ve created, and on top of it, can we teach models to reason?” Altman said. “And we thought that if we could do that, it would be a very significant step forward.”
Altman said he conceptualizes AI in five levels. The first level is commonly seen in today’s AI use and is considered to be “conversational AI.” The second level is reaching “reasoning AI”, or when AI can perform basic problem-solving tasks similar to a human.
“The model that we launched today is, I think, … the first model that is a true general purpose, complex reasoner,” Altman said.
When Feder asked if “Strawberry” would put humans on the path to finding artificial general intelligence or superhuman intelligence, Altman said he believes
“I think we are on that path,” Altman said. “This is the next step on that path. But, I think it’s all one long, exponential curve and that we are very fortunate to get to live and witness.”
While some experts in the technology field have raised concerns about the ethics of creating AI tools that are not yet regulated or tested on a broad scale, Altman said he cannot help but feel optimistic about the future.
“I don’t know how we could sit at this present moment and not be optimistic,” Altman said. “I think we are living through probably the most exciting piece of the technological revolution in human history.”
Altman also discussed the implications of reasoning AI models such as o1-preview on the job market, particularly for those who already are working in software development or engineering.
“If you think that the job of a programmer in five years is going to look at a kind of minute to minute level, similar to what a programmer does today, then obviously you’re in for a bad time,” Altman said. “But if you think that the world is going to continue to have near limitless demand for software, and that, as part of that, there will be a very important role to figure out what it should be and how to work with a much higher level of programming than we use today, then I think there’ll be a ton of demand for that kind of a job. But it will be really different.”
Information graduate student Mila Filipof attended the event and told The Michigan Daily she appreciates the opportunities the University provides to meet with top executives in the technology field.
“I think our generation is what’s next and I think it’s really important that we are educated on what’s going on, informed, but also getting insight to talk to these higher-up executives because one day someone in this room could be the next person who’s sitting up there,” Filipof said. “It’s important to create that connection between students and executives to increase interest, get informed, but I think, also, really inspire our next generation.”
Engineering senior Taj Singh attended Altman’s speech and spoke about major takeaways he had from the fireside chat in an interview with The Daily.
“I thought it was very inspiring for founders and people who eventually think they want to create their own business,” Singh said. “He painted a very optimistic light for the future.”
Managing News Editor Rachel Mintz can be reached at mintzrac@umich.edu.
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