When we think of OpenAI, one name often comes to mind: Sam Altman, the charismatic CEO who has been instrumental in shaping the company’s vision and fundraising efforts. But behind the scenes, there are two key players who are driving the company’s research forward: Mark Chen, Chief Research Officer, and Jakub Pachocki, Chief Scientist. In a recent interview with MIT Technology Review, Chen and Pachocki shared their insights on the future of AI research, including how they balance research and product development, their approach to creating more capable models, and what they mean by Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
It’s refreshing to see that despite Altman’s dominant presence, OpenAI has a strong research team that’s focused on pushing the boundaries of AI capabilities. Chen and Pachocki’s work will be instrumental in shaping the company’s direction and ensuring that OpenAI stays ahead of its competitors.
Their conversation also touched on the company’s superalignment team, which was set up to prevent a hypothetical superintelligence from going rogue. Although the team disbanded after its leader, Ilya Sutskever, left the company, it’s clear that OpenAI is still committed to responsible AI development.
If you’re interested in learning more about the future of AI research, I highly recommend checking out the full interview.