Sam Altman appears to admit the existence of a secret new doomsday AI system he helped build – that could be the leap to artificial general intelligence

Sam Altman seems to be leading the credibility of the theory that he was fired from OpenAI over a new, highly powerful, secret AI system developed by his company that he helped build.

Several employees reportedly warned the company's board that this project, called Q* (pronounced “Q star”), had become so advanced that it could actually pass math tests and perform critical thinking tasks.

They felt that Altman did not take their warnings seriously.

In an interview this week, Altman did not deny the existence of the secret program that some employees said was responsible for his firing.

Instead, he described the revelation as an “unfortunate leak.”

Altman was fired, then hired by OpenAI investor Microsoft, then rehired by OpenAI — which also gave away most of the board members who fired Altman — all over the course of just five days in November.

When confronted with questions about Q* in an interview with The Verge, he had the opportunity to deny the program's existence.

The public learned of Q*'s existence in a recent Reuters story, which also shared some of the concerns raised in the employee warning letter to the board.

But that news story covered only the question and the contents of the letter in general, as Reuters reporters had not seen the letter.

With all this uncertainty, Altman was well placed to deny the existence of Q* and dismiss it as an unfounded rumor.

Instead, he seemed to confirm it.

He said: “There is no specific comment on this unfortunate leak.” 'But what we've been saying – two weeks ago, what we've been saying today, what we've been saying a year ago, what we've been saying back in the day – is that we expect progress in this technology to continue rapidly, and also that we expect to continue to work hard to figure out how to make it safe and useful.'

Those working in the field of artificial intelligence have warned that once computer scientists achieve artificial general intelligence (AGI), it may become more powerful than humans can handle.

They can even view humans as a threat to be eliminated, and enlist the internet and computer infrastructure to carry out their doomsday plan.

These concerns align with experts' predictions that artificial intelligence will one day reach a point known as the Singularity, when technology becomes more powerful and intelligent than humans can compete with, changing the course of our evolution.

Former Google engineer Ray Kurzweil once predicted that the singularity would arrive by 2045.

The secret software called Q* may be the reason behind the dismissal of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI. When given the opportunity to deny the program's existence, Altman seemed to acknowledge it instead

In April, more than 25,000 people I signed an open letter Call for a six-month pause in artificial intelligence research. At the time, Altman said he agreed with the calls for caution, but disagreed with the “technical nuances” in the open letter.

He did not sign it.

Reports claimed that several employees wrote a letter to OpenAI's board of directors before Altman was removed from OpenAI.

The letter is said to detail how Altman's company operates He was working on new discoveries in artificial intelligence that were dangerous, and there were serious risks associated with commercializing technologies whose potential consequences the company did not rigorously understand.

Reuters reported Which Q* is part of the reason Altman was fired from OpenAI, given the new system's advanced capabilities.

The sources said Q* was already excelling on math tests, while the latest version of ChatGPT, GPT-4, still struggled on high school exams.

People working in the field of artificial intelligence have warned that once computer scientists achieve artificial general intelligence, it may become more powerful than humans can handle. They may even view humans as a threat that must be eliminated

GPT-4 was launched in March, giving it time to advance, while Q* has yet to be confirmed.

Sources also claimed that Q* can use non-linear methods such as idea tree, Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS), process supervised reward models (PRMs), and algorithm learning.

However, OpenAI employees reportedly believe that Q* could be the breakthrough that enables AGI development.

OpenAI has defined AGI as “AI systems that are generally more intelligent than humans.”

This week when asked why he was fired from his position Interview with The EdgeAltman remained silent, redirecting questions to OpenAI board members — who were not interviewed.

At the time of publishing this article, OpenAI had not responded to DailyMail.com's request for comment.