Former head of NSA joins OpenAI board

[thetechfreak]

Source : *www.theverge.com/2024/6/13/24178079/openai-board-paul-nakasone-nsa-safety




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OpenAI has appointed Paul M. Nakasone, a retired general of the US Army and a former head of the National Security Agency (NSA), to its board of directors, the company announced on Thursday. Nakasone, who was nominated to lead the NSA by former President Donald Trump, directed the agency from 2018 until February of this year. Before Nakasone left the NSA, he wrote an op-ed supporting the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the surveillance program that was ultimately reauthorized by Congress in April.
OpenAI says Nakasone will join its Safety and Security Committee, which was announced in May and is led by CEO Sam Altman, “as a first priority.” Nakasone will “also contribute to OpenAI’s efforts to better understand how AI can be used to strengthen cybersecurity by quickly detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats.”

Recent departures tied to safety at OpenAI include co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who played a key role in Sam Altman’s November firing and eventual un-firing, and Jan Leike, who said on X that “safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products.”



“Artificial intelligence has the potential to have huge positive impacts on people’s lives, but it can only meet this potential if these innovations are securely built and deployed,“ board chair Bret Taylor said in a statement. “General Nakasone’s unparalleled experience in areas like cybersecurity will help guide OpenAI in achieving its mission of ensuring artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”
OpenAI’s board of directors now includes Nakasone, Altman, Adam D’Angelo, Larry Summers, Bret Taylor, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Nicole Seligman, and Fidji Simo. Microsoft’s Dee Templeton also has a non-voting observer seat.

 

[Desmond]

So is this a good thing or bad?

 

[bubusam13]

Good but people will surely find a way to make it bad. May be like weaponization of AI in a large scale. How AI will be able to manipulate humans to extract data, may be AI will start to honey trap as well.

 

[thetechfreak]

Good but people will surely find a way to make it bad. May be like weaponization of AI in a large scale. How AI will be able to manipulate humans to extract data, may be AI will start to honey trap as well.

can you suggest 2 point why head of a surveillance agency joining can be good thing, you already mentioned few bad ones

 

[TheSloth]

"security"

 

[bubusam13]

AI needs to be trained in all aspects possible. As he was heading the NSA, he got much knowledge on how to deal with national security. If I am to train an AI on this aspect, I will definitely select the head of NSA to guide by group of developers/researchers.
Only then I will be able to create a tool to deal with national security, autonomously, with few layers of approvers of course.