by Editor | Nov 26, 2023 | Global Alliance for Digital Governance
OpenAI’s board at first refused to entertain the possibility of Altman returning, but then something happened they could not ignore: 702 out of OpenAI’s 770 employees committed to leaving the company unless Altman was restored. The employees also asked that a new board be assembled. It was, and Altman was restored as CEO not long after.
Just one former board member sits on the new, temporary board: Adam D’Angelo, the CEO of the question-and-answer site Quora. He had voted for Altman’s ouster.
Others, who are familiar to Silicon Valley boards, have taken seats alongside him. They include Bret Taylor, a longtime Silicon Valley executive and former chairman of the board of Twitter, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
As it stands, OpenAI’s charter says it is committed to the development of artificial general intelligence, also known as AGI, or a type of AI superintelligence that can outperform humans, that will not “harm humanity or unduly concentrate power.”
Please read see full story here:
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/24/1215015362/chatgpt-openai-sam-altman-fired-explained#:~:text=OpenAI’s%20board%20of%20directors’%20abruptly,the%20surface%20of%20the%20company.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/tech/larry-summers-openai-board-sam-altman/index.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/11/openai-ilya-sutskever-sam-altman-fired/676072/
by Editor | Nov 26, 2023 | News
On November 2, 2023, at Harvard University Loeb House, during the BGF Conference commemorating the 90th birthday of Governor Dukakis, Co-founder, and Chair of BGF, MIT Professor Nazli Choucri, BGF Board Member, shared her insights as a distinguished contributor to the book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment.” Here are the keynotes from her speech:
I want to revisit Michael Dukakis and highlight his various qualities as a person, individual, statesman, manager, leader, collaborator, problem solver, and inspirer for a better future. Those who have worked with him recognize his calm and compassionate nature. He handles differences of views with equilibrium and balance, efficiently reviewing and assessing priorities brought to him. In his interactions, he steers with respect for others, earning their respect in return.
We live in three interconnected worlds: the social, geopolitical human society; the natural environment; and the cyber domain. Our dilemma at this point in time is that we haven’t connected strategically, intellectually, theoretically, or even computationally to those three realities where we live. These are not autonomous anymore; they’re interconnected, but very few of us can really pull together where the connections really are. So, we’re faced with technological change.
Technological change and advances that are moving very rapidly, perhaps faster than we are able to manage. I want to conclude with a noteworthy discovery that around 74 countries have formal AI policies according to the OECD Observatory. The common core among them raises questions about the governance of AI with ethical considerations. Assessing outliers is crucial – are they outrageous and should be ignored, or integrated? This corpus of policies requires closer analysis and is of great importance to the governor.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C0_AxieOtI
by Editor | Nov 26, 2023 | News
On November 2, 2023, at Harvard University Loeb House, during the BGF Conference commemorating the 90th birthday of Governor Dukakis, Co-founder and Chair of BGF, Northeastern Professor Beth Noveck, the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer under President Obama, spoke. She was senior advisor for Open Government for UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and between 2018-2021, served on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Digital Council. Here are the keynotes from her speech:
Firstly, happy birthday Governor Michael Dukakis. I moved to Northeastern a year ago due to collaboration with the Dukakis Center, enabling me to lead the new Center for Social Change. I moved to Northeastern just a year ago, mainly due to a collaboration with the Dukakis Center and the values created as a legacy at various institutions. This enabled me to take up my new position as the Director of our new university-wide Center for Social Change. I’ll hide back here for a moment and say that this week, many of us interested in AI were faced with a 20,000-word, 111-page executive order from the White House. Surprisingly, there’s no mention of democracy or engaging the public in these documents.
I came today to express my concern about what this risk mindset does for us. There is a missed opportunity to fully realize the benefits of AI, particularly the distinctly human benefits, if we do not prioritize those opportunities. We need investment in policy research dollars and attention to using AI to strengthen our democracy. This is not a theoretical prescription; there is work ongoing that we can support, such as the Collective Intelligence Project, which uses AI for scalable conversations about AI benefits and risks.
This risk mindset is concerning, and we need to focus on realizing the benefits by incorporating the distributed wisdom of people. This involves innovative projects, like the one I’m involved in at Northeastern, called Policy Synth, and collaborations with institutions and tools like urbanist AI in Helsinki or the Dutch cycling lifestyle platform. In conclusion, while being wary of risks, we should resist fear-mongering that impedes our ability to ask and answer, “What can we do with these powerful technologies to realize the vision of AI for good?” If we fail to ask and answer how we can use AI to improve democracy, we will miss a crucial opportunity. We must focus on using AI to unlock artificial intelligence to enable collective intelligence.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C0_AxieOtI
by Editor | Nov 23, 2023 | News
Happy Thanksgiving!
As we express our gratitude on this special day, the Boston Global Forum extends heartfelt thanks to all contributors who have played a vital role in our endeavors. A special appreciation goes to the distinguished contributors of the book “From the Massachusetts Miracle to the Age of Global Enlightenment,” a tribute to the 90th birthday of Governor Michael Dukakis, Co-founder, and Chair of the Boston Global Forum. Your insights and dedication have enriched our collective journey. To explore the interactive version of the book, please visit:
Once again, thank you for your valuable contributions, and we wish you a joyous Thanksgiving!
by Editor | Nov 20, 2023 | News
Minh Nguyen is the Editor of the Boston Global Forum and a Shinzo Abe Initiative Fellow. She writes the Four Pillars column in the BGF Weekly newsletter.
US President Biden met with Xi Jinping this week at the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Their four-hour discussion produced an agreement to restore military-to-military communications, open presidential hotlines, and work on curbing fentanyl. Some points of contention remained though, notably in regards to Taiwan. Plenty of Chinese state PR about friendliness between the two countries too, notably with the news that China will be sending two pandas to the US. It would not be surprising that even though it is all messages of goodwill and warm relations, tensions will return when some incidents occur in Asia-Pacific in two weeks. Towards the end of the summit, Biden did call Xi a ‘dictator’.
At the APEC summit, the US and Indonesia elevated their relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This is another Southeast Asian state that has improved their relationship with the US this year, after Vietnam in September. This notes that the US is continuing to seek allies in the region to safeguard international maritime laws and to find ways to counter China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific. However, there was disappointment that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework trade deal fell through due to US domestic/party pressure, even if the deal was more of a symbolic one.
In APEC, Japan, a Pillar, and South Korea continue to improve their ties, this time in regard to startups. The two countries were floating methods to benefit innovation and technology for both regional and global solutions. This is another step in the growing ties between the two countries to counter China’s rise.
In Europe, there were some minor events. France (through its courts) has officially put out an arrest warrant for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons in 2013. In the UK, somehow, David Cameron returned. Earlier in the week, PM Sunak sacked Home Secretary Suella Braverman, but surprisingly brought former PM Cameron in to fill the position.
APEC family photo in San Francisco
