OpenAI Whistleblowers Allege Unlawful Restrictions

Welcome back, AI Aficionados

OpenAI faces serious allegations from whistleblowers claiming the company unlawfully stifled employee reports about potential risks of its AI technology.

These claims highlight the tension between corporate policies and the need for transparency in the rapidly advancing AI sector.

Today’s News

• OpenAI Whistleblowers Allege Unlawful Restrictions

• OpenAI New AI model codename Strawberry🍓 

• Government Aims to Protect Creators with the Introduction of the COPIED Act

• 3 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

• AI GENERATED IMAGES: Vibrant City

OpenAI Under Scrutiny: Whistleblowers Allege Unlawful Restrictions

Whistleblowers from OpenAI have filed a complaint with the SEC, alleging the company illegally prevented employees from warning regulators about potential risks its technology could pose. The complaint claims OpenAI enforced overly restrictive agreements that threatened penalties for those who reported concerns, violating federal laws designed to protect whistleblowers.

OpenAI required employees to waive their federal rights to whistleblower compensation and seek prior consent before disclosing information to federal authorities. These agreements also lacked exemptions for disclosing securities violations to the SEC.

“These contracts sent a message that ‘we don’t want employees talking to federal regulators,’” one whistleblower stated anonymously. “AI companies can’t build safe technology if they shield themselves from scrutiny.”

OpenAI spokesperson Hannah Wong responded, “Our whistleblower policy protects employees’ rights to make protected disclosures. We’ve made important changes to remove nondisparagement terms.”

This letter comes amid concerns that OpenAI, initially a nonprofit with an altruistic mission, is prioritizing profit over safety. Reports indicate OpenAI rushed its latest AI model release, ignoring some safety protocols. Lindsey Held, another spokesperson, asserted, “We didn’t cut corners on our safety process.”

Strict confidentiality agreements in the tech industry have long frustrated workers and regulators, limiting their ability to report misconduct. The rapid advancement of AI has intensified calls for regulation, with policymakers stressing the importance of whistleblowers in developing effective AI policies.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) commented, “OpenAI’s policies seem to chill whistleblowers’ rights to speak up and receive compensation. These nondisclosure agreements must change.”

The SEC has acknowledged the complaint but hasn’t confirmed an investigation. The whistleblowers urge the SEC to act swiftly, noting the broader relevance to the AI sector and potential violations of a recent White House executive order on safe AI development.

“Insiders must be free to report concerns to federal authorities,” the letter concludes, emphasizing the vital role of employees in detecting and warning against significant dangers.

OpenAI codename “Strawberry”🍓

OpenAI is reportedly building a new AI model called “Strawberry” to help its artificial intelligence tools reach human-level intelligence through advanced reasoning.

Strawberry would effectively scan the internet autonomously and reliably perform what OpenAI describes as “deep research,” allowing it to solve more complex real-world problems at scale, according to a July 12 report by Reuters.

This could involve anything from making major scientific discoveries to building new software applications, Reuters said after speaking with an OpenAI spokesperson, who added:

Strawberry aims to achieve this by conducting an extensive “post-training” analysis of OpenAI’s existing AI models to craft more humanlike responses.

Strawberry is still a work in progress, and it isn’t clear how close it is to being publicly available.

Strawberry extends on OpenAI’s Q* project announced in November 2023, which has been described as a technical breakthrough allowing for the development of “far more powerful artificial intelligence models.”

Government Introduces the COPIED Act

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a new bill to protect artists, songwriters, and journalists from using their content for AI training or creation without their consent. The bill, known as the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act), also seeks to tackle the rise of harmful deepfakes and make it easier to identify AI-generated content.

Authored by Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senate AI Working Group member Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Commerce Committee member Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the COPIED Act aims to bring greater transparency to the use of digital content. The bill would require companies to develop AI tools to implement content provenance information—machine-readable data that tracks the origin of digital content, such as photos and news articles—within two years.

Under this bill, content with provenance information could not be used to train AI models or generate AI content without permission. It would also grant content creators the right to sue platforms that misuse their content or tamper with provenance information.

Senator Cantwell highlighted the bill’s importance: “The bipartisan COPIED Act I introduced with Senator Blackburn and Senator Heinrich will provide much-needed transparency around AI-generated content. The COPIED Act will also put creators, including local journalists, artists, and musicians, back in control of their content with a provenance and watermark process that I think is very much needed.”

The COPIED Act has received backing from several artists’ groups, including SAG-AFTRA, the National Music Publishers’ Association, and The Seattle Times. This legislation comes at a time of increased legislative activity around AI, with recent bills addressing issues like deepfake porn and AI in elections.

Last month, Senator Ted Cruz introduced the Take It Down Act, aiming to hold social media companies accountable for removing deepfake pornography. Earlier this year, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed a broad AI “roadmap” focusing on innovation, security, and election integrity.

In response to the AI boom, President Joe Biden issued an executive order in October to establish standards for AI safety and security, requiring developers to share critical information with the government before public deployment. However, former President Donald Trump has pledged to repeal this order if re-elected.

QUICKIES

• AI Layoffs Surge: The rise of AI has led to over 100,000 tech industry layoffs this year, with Intuit, UiPath, and OpenText among the latest companies to announce cuts as they shift towards AI-driven processes.

• Rufus Goes Live: Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus, is now available to all U.S. customers, helping with product searches, comparisons, and recommendations directly in the Amazon mobile app.

• Bezos & Robotics: Jeff Bezos’ $300M involvement in Skild AI’s funding hints at potential future collaborations with Amazon and other robotics firms.

• Apple Embraces Emulation: After initially rejecting it, Apple has now approved UTM SE, the first PC emulator for iOS, allowing users to run classic software and games on iPhones and iPads.

3 AI Tools to Supercharge Your Productivity

🤖 Briefly: Summarize long articles, research papers, or reports into concise and digestible highlights.

🤖 Sidekick: Helps you schedule meetings, hold dynamic conversations with your customers, and talk just like a human.

🤖 PitchPerfect: Generate and refine pitch decks and proposals using AI to craft compelling content and design.

AI-GENERATED IMAGES

Vibrant cityscape in digital drawing mode, depicting a warm and serene sunset casting a golden glow on sleek skyscrapers and bustling streets, with bold lines and expressive brushstrokes evoking a sense of dynamic energy, set against a kaleidoscope of colors - burnt oranges, blushing pinks, and radiant yellows, with touches of deep blues and purples in the shadows, infused with a cinematic quality, as if the city is alive and pulsing with the rhythm of the fading light, mesmerizing and full of movement.

Images; LeonardoAI

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The Chirp AI team