OpenAI’s offices were sent thousands of paper clips in an elaborate prank to warn about an AI apocalypse::The prank was a reference to the “paper clip maximizer” scenario – the idea that AI could destroy humanity if it were told to build as many paper clips as possible.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
One of OpenAI’s biggest rivals played an elaborate prank on the AI startup by sending thousands of paper clips to its offices.
The paper clips in the shape of OpenAI’s distinctive spiral logo were sent to the AI startup’s San Francisco offices last year by an employee at rival Anthropic, in a subtle jibe suggesting that the company’s approach to AI safety could lead to the extinction of humanity, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Since then, OpenAI has rapidly accelerated its commercial offerings, launching ChatGPT last year to record-breaking success and striking a multibillion-dollar investment deal with Microsoft in January.
AI safety concerns have come back to haunt the company in recent weeks, however, with the chaotic firing and subsequent reinstatement of CEO Sam Altman.
According to The Atlantic, Sutskever commissioned and set fire to a wooden effigy representing “unaligned” AI at a recent company retreat, and he reportedly also led OpenAI’s employees in a chant of “feel the AGI” at the company’s holiday party, after saying: “Our goal is to make a mankind-loving AGI.”
OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
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To touch more deeply on why paperclips allude to the extinction of humanity: the Paperclip Problem is a parable in which an artificial intelligence operating a factory is instructed to make as many paperclips as possible.
It doesn’t stop when it runs out of resources. Instead, it commandeers mining machines to deplete the planet’s metals, and after those had been used up, it melts every human down for the trace iron in our blood.
The instructions didn’t think the AI needed to be told when to stop, so it just kept going.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumental_convergence
https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/ai-and-paperclip-problem