News
Larry Summers, Who Called For Unemployment Increase To Fight Inflation, Joins OpenAI Board
OpenAI has a new board of directors after the ousting and rehiring of CEO Sam Altman over the last week. One of them is former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers who was criticized for saying this January that people would need to lose their jobs in order to stop inflation.
Last Friday, Altman was fired from OpenAI by the board of directors, who said he had not been “consistently candid.” This set off a firestorm at the nonprofit, with cofounder Greg Brockman quitting the same day, and OpenAI investor Microsoft offering Altman and Brockman jobs leading a new AI research team, according to Forbes.
Shortly after that announcement, 91% of the 770 OpenAI employees signed an open letter saying they would quit and join Microsoft’s team unless the board resigned and reinstated Altman. On Wednesday, OpenAI’s board acquiesced, according to CNN. The new board is chaired by ex-CEO of Salesforce Bret Taylor, and includes Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo and Summers.
READ MORE: “Concerning”: Elon Musk Is Concerned That An AI Chatbot Won’t Utter Racist Slurs
Summers was the treasury secretary from 1999-2001 under President Bill Clinton. He then led Harvard University until 2006 following a vote of no confidence by the school’s faculty after a clash with Cornel West and a statement that women were underrepresented in STEM in part due to a “different availability of aptitude at the high end,” according to The Harvard Crimson. From 2009-2011, he was the director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.
However, he found controversy when he appeared on Bloomberg’s Wall Street Week this January, saying that “there’s going to need to be increases in unemployment to contain inflation.” While as VICE points out, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said something similar, Summers in particular faced backlash as he delivered his comments while sitting on a tropical beach.
AI was linked to almost 4,000 lost jobs in May, according CBS News. The journalism industry has been hit hard, with some media companies using AI to write articles, despite issues with accuracy and plagiarism.
It’s not just journalism jobs that have been lost. The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) replaced employees with a chatbot after they voted to unionize. NEDA had to shut it down after it started telling people with eating disorders to starve themselves among other harmful suggestions, according to CBS.
Featured image by Chatham House via Wikimedia Commons.
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.