“OpenAI Cofounder Reid Hoffman Gives Sam Altman a Vote of Confidence”, Paresh Dave2023-12-06 (OA)⁠:

LinkedIn and OpenAI cofounder Reid Hoffman says he’s glad Sam Altman is leading the AI company again. Hoffman and other AI experts discussed the perils and potential of AI at a WIRED event Tuesday…“Surprise would be an understatement”, he said about his reaction to learning of Altman’s firing. After employees and investors revolted, Altman got his job back days later. “We are in a much better place for the world to have Sam as CEO. He’s very competent in that”, said Hoffman, who with Elon Musk and other wealthy tech luminaries formed the earliest vision for OpenAI when it was founded in 2015. …“Just because you can build the technology doesn’t mean that necessarily has a good outcome”, said Hoffman, a LinkedIn cofounder and investor at venture capital firm Greylock. “You have to shape it. You have to direct what you’re doing—being an intelligent shaper of it and driving in the right direction.”

…Hoffman and others said that there’s no need to pause development of AI. He called that drastic measure, for which some AI researchers have petitioned, foolish and destructive. Hoffman identified himself as a rational “accelerationist”—someone who knows to slow down when driving around a corner but that, presumably, is happy to speed up when the road ahead is clear. “I recommend everyone come join us in the optimist club, not because it’s utopia and everything works out just fine, but because it can be part of an amazing solution”, he said. “That’s what we’re trying to build towards.”

See Also:

• Reid Hoffman was privately unhappy about leaving OpenAI’s board