OpenAI adds a prominent AI doomer to its board of directors

OpenAI has added Paul Christiano, a prominent AI researcher, to its board of directors as the company faces renewed scrutiny over its safety procedures. Christiano's concerns about AI risks have been echoed by other experts, including Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who recently resigned his position to call attention to what he considers irresponsible AI development. Christiano is one of the key figures behind reinforcement learning (RL) from human feedback, a technique used to train large language models. He joined the U.S. government's AI Safety Institute in 2024, where he plays a role in evaluating frontier AI models before their release. Christiano's appointment comes amid growing concerns about the AI industry's influence over policymaking. The OpenAI Foundation has expressed its commitment to reducing the risk of catastrophic loss of control in AI systems, with Christiano's expertise expected to contribute to this effort.