Author: openjargon

• Jan Leike, the co-lead of OpenAI's superalignment group, announced his resignation on Tuesday.
• Leike's exit follows the departure of Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist.
• Their departures come amid a series of high-profile exits from OpenAI's safety team in recent months.

OpenAI's leadership shakeup continues with the departure of Jan Leike, who tweeted on Tuesday night that he had resigned.

Leike co-led OpenAi's superalignment group, a team that focuses on making its artificial intelligence systems align with human interests.

In September, he was named one of Time 100's most influential people in AI.

Leike announced his departure hours after Ilya Sutskever, the other superalignment leader, said he was exiting.

Sutskever, who cofounded OpenAI and was its chief scientist, said he is leaving after almost a decade, he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Sutskever added he was "excited" about his next steps, which he said he would share more details about "in due time."

Leike's short post — "I resigned" — is sure to fuel speculation about his and Sutskever's next moves.

In a post on X, OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman said, "Ilya and OpenAI are going to part ways. This is very sad to me; Ilya is easily one of the greatest minds of our generation, a guiding light of our field, and a dear friend. His brilliance and vision are well known; his warmth and compassion are less well known but no less important."

Altman did not immediately address Leike's departure.

The news comes on the tail of several high-profile OpenAI departures. Two executives, Diane Yoon and Chris Clark, quit weeks ago, The Information reported. Yoon was the VP of people, and Clark was head of nonprofit and strategic initiatives. OpenAI also parted ways with researchers Leopold Aschenbrenner and Pavel Izmailov, according to another report by The Information last month. They both have worked on the superalignment team.

BI reported last week that two employees who worked on safety and governance resigned in recent months. Daniel Kokotajlo left last month and William Saunders departed OpenAI in February.

OpenAI and Leike did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside standard working hours.

• Google's Gemini in Search demo video, released Tuesday, made a factual error.
• Gemini suggested opening a film camera without a dark room, which would ruin the photos.
• Google's demo videos have made such mistakes in the past too.

In two back-to-back days of big launches, OpenAI and Google showed the world their newest artificial intelligence projects.

They made impressive demo videos featuring all the new things OpenAI's ChatGPT-4o can do, and how Google's Gemini will revolutionize Search as we know it.

But Google's Tuesday video shows one of the major pitfalls of AI: wrong, not just bad, advice. A minute into the flashy, quick-paced video, Gemini AI in Google Search presented a factual error first spotted by The Verge.

A photographer takes a video of his malfunctioning film camera and asks Gemini: "Why is the lever not moving all the way." Gemini provides a list of solutions right away — including one that would destroy all his photos.

The video of the list highlights one suggestion: "Open the back door and gently remove the film if the camera is jammed."

Professional photographers — or anyone who has used a film camera — know that this is a terrible idea. Opening a camera outdoors, where the video takes place, could ruin some or all of the film by exposing it to bright light.

Google has faced similar issues with earlier AI products.

Last year, a Google demo video showing the Bard chatbot incorrectly said that the James Webb Space Telescope was the first to photograph a planet outside our own solar system.

Earlier this year, the Gemini chatbot was hammered for refusing to produce pictures of white people. It was criticized for being too "woke" and developing photos riled with historical inaccuracies like Asian Nazis and Black founding fathers. Google leadership apologized, saying they "missed the mark."

Tuesday's video highlights the perils of AI chatbots, which have been producing hallucinations, which are incorrect predictions, and giving users bad advice. Last year, users of Bing, Microsoft's AI chatbot, reported strange interactions with the bot. It called users delusional, tried to gaslight them about what year it is, and even professed its love to some users.

Companies using such AI tools may also be legally responsible for what their bots say. In February, a Canadian tribunal held Air Canada responsible for its chatbot feeding a passenger wrong information about bereavement discounts.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside standard business hours.

• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang received a $34.2 million compensation package in fiscal 2024.
• Huang's pay rose 60% from 2023, driven by Nvidia's stock surge amid demand for the company's AI chips.
• Nvidia's stock has tripled in a year, making it the third-most valuable company globally.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang got a huge payday last year thanks to strong demand for the company's AI chips.

Huang, who is also a cofounder of Nvidia, received a $34.2 million compensation package for the fiscal year, which runs from February to January, the company's annual proxy filing shows.

Huang's total compensation for the 2024 fiscal year was a 60% jump from the year before, when he was awarded $21.4 million, according to the document filed on Tuesday.

His compensation consisted of $26.7 million in stock awards, $4 million in cash bonuses, and $2.5 million for other expenses, including residential security, and car and driver.

Huang's payday bonanza came as Nvidia's share price sustained a rally on the back of the AI frenzy.

Demand for Nvidia's chips is so high that Huang had to assure analysts in his fourth-quarter earnings call that the company was allocating them "fairly."

Nvidia is not set to report first-quarter results until next week, but it's already dominating the earnings season with its AI chips, Business Insider's Matthew Fox reported recently.

The demand for AI chips has sent Nvidia's share price tripling in the past year, making the $2.3 trillion company the third-most valuable company in the world after Microsoft and Apple.

Nvidia's share price surge has also boosted the personal wealth of Huang, who is now the 18th-richest man in the world, with a fortune of $80.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. This is mainly thanks to Huang's 3.8% stake in the company.

Huang is not the only Nvidia executive seeing a major rise in compensation.

The compensation for Colette Kress, Nvidia's chief financial officer, rose by about 22% to $13.3 million last year.

Rank-and-file staff also saw their pay rise, with the median employee taking home $266,939 in fiscal 2024, which was 17% more than the year before.

Nvidia's share price closed 1.1% higher at $913.56 on Tuesday. The stock is up 85% so far this year and has gained over 200% over the past 12 months.

• Heavy winds blew down a billboard in Mumbai on Monday, crushing a petrol station and killing 14.
• Dozens of people were trapped for hours under the debris, with 75 people injured, authorities said.
• Authorities say they're taking down illegally erected billboards, some of which were larger than permitted.

At least 14 people were killed by a falling billboard in Mumbai, India after its structure collapsed due to stormwinds and crashed into several houses and a petrol station.

Local police said the billboard measured 70 meters by 50 meters, or about 230 feet by 165 feet, and collapsed on Monday at a petrol pump in the Ghatkopar suburb.

Dozens were trapped in the wreckage for hours, police added.

City officials confirmed in a statement on X that 14 people had died from the collapse and that an additional 75 people were injured. As of Tuesday, when the statement was issued, at least 31 of them had been discharged from medical treatment.

They said "speedy winds" had caused the hoarding to fall.

Footage shared on social media showed the billboard's metal supports giving way as it tipped over on one side, flattening cars and buildings in seconds.

A video of the aftermath published by The Associated Press showed the petrol station's collapsed roof, where crews worked to clear debris.

Local media reported that the billboard was larger than legally permitted and may have been erected without permission. The BBC, citing city authorities, reported the same.

Municipal authorities said on X they have since demolished three billboards set up illegally near the collapsed advertisement.

"An inquiry is already being ordered into the incident. Strict action will be taken against the culprits," said Devendra Fadnavis, deputy chief minister of Mumbai's state, Maharashtra.

He said the government has organized around $6,000 in financial assistance for affected families. Typical annual wages in the city range from $5,200 to $7,200, per salary aggregation firms.

Mumbai has been battered by heavy rains and strong winds in the past week, and India's Meteorological Department expects thunderstorms and squalls to continue in Maharashtra for several days.

Dust storms have also emerged intermittently amid the rains, blanketing the city of 18 million in gray and orange hues.

The coastal urban hub hasn't even hit its monsoon season yet, which typically runs from June to September. Mumbai is often subject to floods during this period, with local media estimating that about 35% of the city sees chronic flooding.

• Apple will have to swing big at its developer conference if it wants to be seen as serious in AI.
• While Google and OpenAI revealed impressive AI assistants this month, Apple rolled out new iPads.
• All eyes will be on Apple in June at its WWDC, according to analysts.

While Apple's Big Tech competitors have announced leaps forward in the artificial intelligence space this month, the iPhone maker has instead said it's bringing consumers thinner iPads.

It's going to have to do a bit better, analysts say.

OpenAI and Google's demonstrations on May 13 and May 14, respectively, showed the two companies pushing AI capabilities forward. In OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's words, it's a bit of "magic,"

OpenAI's new GPT-4o, introduced Monday, can translate speech, identify emotions over video, and tutor students. Google's Gemini can plug into Gmail to summarize emails, create spreadsheets based on information, and formulate replies.

Even Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram have integrated Meta's AI into app search fields.

Apple, though, has kept pretty quiet about its own AI ambitions so far — and it's increasingly obvious.

"The buzz around AI, and specifically GenAI, has been so deafening that Apple is noticeable by omission," Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, told Business Insider.

And while it's in Apple's nature to focus more on products — like its announcement about its new iPads on May 7 — the tight-lipped culture it's famous for is "about to give out" in the face of calls for more clarity about its AI strategy, Chatterjee said.

It's all adding pressure for Apple to stick the landing on the technology at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference now that Google and OpenAI have unveiled their arsenals.

"Apple's way behind when it comes to AI," Gene Munster, managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management, told BI.

Munster said Apple should consider both of this week's events a "wake-up call." He predicts that Apple's only option to catch up is to partner with OpenAI or Google, saying it'd be nearly impossible for Apple to "close the gap" with AI competitors on its own.

While Apple's reportedly been in talks with both companies about bringing either OpenAI or Gemini to the next iPhone, there have been no official announcements on its plans in the burgeoning field — unlike Google and OpenAI's massive, live-streamed presentations.

Apple's big announcement last week was a new and improved version of the iPad — a product that's been around for 14 years.

Still, if the rumors about OpenAI or Gemini iPhone integration are true, this week's "strong announcements actually would bode well for Apple," William Kerwin, an analyst at Morningstar, said.

He continued: "The voice application in the new GPT-4o model looked like it was primed for Siri integration to me, if it works out that way."

And Wedbush's Dan Ives warned people not to count Apple out of the AI "Game of Thrones" just yet, even if it feels like Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI are ahead in the game right now.

The analyst told BI that the new iPad rollout is simply an "appetizer to the real meat and potatoes" of Apple's AI strategy, expected to be announced at the WWDC in June.

• IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva says AI will hit the job market "like a tsunami."
• "We have very little time to get people ready for it, businesses ready for it," she said on Monday.
• In January, Georgieva predicted that AI will affect roughly 40% of jobs worldwide. 

The AI revolution could have a huge negative impact on the global job market, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday.

The IMF chief was delivering a speech at the Swiss Institute of International Studies in Zurich, where she talked about the impact AI could have on job seekers.

AI, Georgieva said, is striking the job market "like a tsunami."

"We have very little time to get people ready for it, businesses ready for it," she said. "It could bring tremendous increase in productivity if we manage it well, but it can also lead to more misinformation and, of course, more inequality in our society."

This isn't the first time Georgieva has sounded warning calls on AI. In January, she penned a blog post where she predicted that AI "will affect almost 40% of jobs around the world."

"Roughly half the exposed jobs may benefit from AI integration, enhancing productivity. For the other half, AI applications may execute key tasks currently performed by humans, which could lower labor demand, leading to lower wages and reduced hiring," Georgieva wrote.

"In the most extreme cases, some of these jobs may disappear," she continued.

Representatives for IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

Georgieva's warnings appear to be prescient, considering the new offerings that have been served up by AI upstarts like OpenAI this week.

On Monday, OpenAI announced its latest flagship AI model, GPT-4o. The model, which will be made free to all users, "can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time," making it suitable for tasks like teaching and translation.

Demos of the software have taken the internet by storm, reigniting concerns that AI could decimate the job market as we know it.

Even OpenAI's cofounder and CEO, Sam Altman, has regularly warned people of AI's potential impact on the job market. On May 7, Altman told attendees at a Brookings Institution panel that people were underestimating AI's impact on the economy.

"GPT- 4 didn't have this huge detectable impact on the economy, and so people were kind of like, 'Oh well, we were too worried about that, and that's not a problem,'" Altman said, referencing the AI model that OpenAI released last year.

"I have a fear that we just won't take that one seriously enough going forward, and it's a massive, massive issue," he continued.

That said, some experts do believe that the AI's rise will provide job seekers with different opportunities as well.

In November, LinkedIn vice president Annesh Raman said in a podcast interview that while AI will reduce the value of technical skills, it will also make soft skills more important.

"In the 1980s, when Microsoft released Excel, people were petrified and said it would put all of these accountants out of a job. We've got more accountants now than in the 1980s," Simon Lucey, the director of the University of Adelaide's Australian Institute for Machine Learning, told BI on Tuesday.