Former director of OpenAI Mira Murati says it may take decades, but artificial intelligence systems will eventually perform a wide range of cognitive tasks just like humans, marking a potential milestone in the technology commonly known as artificial general intelligence (AGI).
“It seems quite doable at this point,” Murati said Tuesday at WIRED’s The Substantial Interview event in San Francisco. In her first interview since stepping down as OpenAI’s chief technology officer in September, Murati told WIRED’s Steven Levy that she’s not too concerned about recent rumors in the AI industry that developing more powerful generative AI models is proving challenging.
“Current evidence suggests that progress is likely to continue,” Murati said. “There is not much evidence to contradict this. It is not certain that we need new ideas to reach AGI-level systems. I am optimistic that progress will continue.”
The remarks reflect her continued interest in finding a way to bring increasingly capable artificial intelligence systems to the world despite her split from OpenAI. Reuters reported in October, Murati is launching his own artificial intelligence startup to develop his own models and that he could raise more than $100 million in venture capital. On Tuesday, Murati declined to provide details about the venture.
“I wonder what it will look like,” she said. “I’m in the middle of it.”
Murati started in the aerospace industry and then at Elon Musk’s Tesla, where she worked on the Model S and Model X electric cars. She also oversaw product and engineering at virtual reality startup Leap Motion before joining OpenAI in 2018 and helping manage services like like ChatGPT and Dall-E. She became one of OpenAI’s top executives and briefly held the position last year while board members grappled with the fate of CEO Sam Altman.
Mira Murati and Steven Levy in a great interviewPhoto: Tristan deBrauwere
When Murati resigned, Altman credited her with supporting her through tough times and described her as crucial to OpenAI’s development.
Murati has not publicly stated why she left OpenAI, other than to say it was the right time for a personal search. In recent years, several dozen of OpenAI’s early employees have left the nonprofit, some out of frustration with Altman’s growing emphasis on generating revenue rather than pursuing purely academic research. Murati told WIRED’s Levy that the departure was accompanied by “too much obsession” and not enough substantive issues with the development of artificial intelligence.
She identified work on generating synthetic data for training models and growing investments in the computational infrastructure necessary to power them as essential areas to follow. Breakthroughs in these areas will one day make AGI possible, she said. But it’s not all technological. “This technology is not inherently good or bad,” she said. “It affects both sides.” Murati said that society’s task is to collectively guide models towards good, so we are well prepared for the day when AGI arrives.