For OpenAI, o1 represents a step toward its broader goal of human-like artificial intelligence. More practically, it does a better job at writing code and solving multistep problems than previous models. But it’s also more expensive and slower to use than GPT-4o. OpenAI is calling this release of o1 a “preview” to emphasize how nascent it is.
The training behind o1 is fundamentally different from its predecessors, OpenAI’s research lead, Jerry Tworek, tells me, though the company is being vague about the exact details. He says o1 “has been trained using a completely new optimization algorithm and a new training dataset specifically tailored for it.”
OpenAI taught previous GPT models to mimic patterns from its training data. With o1, it trained the model to solve problems on its own using a technique known as reinforcement learning, which teaches the system through rewards and penalties. It then uses a “chain of thought” to process queries, similarly to how humans process problems by going through them step-by-step.
At the same time, o1 is not as capable as GPT-4o in a lot of areas. It doesn’t do as well on factual knowledge about the world. It also doesn’t have the ability to browse the web or process files and images. Still, the company believes it represents a brand-new class of capabilities. It was named o1 to indicate “resetting the counter back to 1.”
I think this is the most important part (emphasis mine):
As a result of this new training methodology, OpenAI says the model should be more accurate. “We have noticed that this model hallucinates less,” Tworek says. But the problem still persists. “We can’t say we solved hallucinations.”
Is that even the goal? Do we want an AI that’s self aware because I thought that basically the whole point was to have an intelligence without a mind.
We don’t really want sapient AI because if we do that then we have to feel bad about putting it in robots and making them do boring jobs. Don’t we basically want guildless servants, isn’t that the point?
Yeah I was thinking more about it as marketing, than a real thing
For the servants bots, yes no sentience. For my in house AI assistant robot buddy/butler/nanny/driver - also yes no sentience.
What we want doesn’t have any impact on what our corporate overlords decide to inflict on us.
They don’t want sapient AI either, why would they?
No one is trying for a self-aware artificial intelligence.
It seems utopia/dystopia, but some things get discovered/invented by accident. The more companies and organizations (and even individuals) fiddle with AI improvement, the more the “odds” of a sentient AI (AGI) being accidentally created increases. Let’s not forget that there are lots of companies, organizations and individuals (yeah, individuals, people outside organizations but with lots of computing power and knowledge) simultaneously developing and training AIs. Well, maybe I’m wrong and just very optimistic for such thing to appear out of nowhere.