OpenAI recently shared insights from its $1 million grant program, which aimed to involve the public in shaping how artificial intelligence (AI) aligns with human values. The program, announced in May 2023, involved awarding 10 grants of $100,000 each to explore democratic processes in AI governance.
In a January 16 blog post, OpenAI detailed the innovations and key learnings from the 10 teams that received these grants. These teams worked on various aspects of democratic technology, focusing on capturing public opinion and integrating it into AI development.
The teams employed multiple methods to gauge public views, noting that these views often change, which could influence the frequency of input processes. OpenAI recognized the need for a collective process that efficiently captures core values while being sensitive to shifts in public opinion over time.
A significant challenge identified was the digital divide, which can skew results. Teams struggled to recruit participants across this divide due to platform limitations and language or contextual barriers.
Another challenge was achieving consensus within polarized groups. For instance, the Collective Dialogues team found that a small subgroup’s strong opposition to restricting AI assistants from answering certain questions led to conflicts with majority voting outcomes.
OpenAI acknowledged the difficulty of balancing consensus with diverse opinions. The Inclusive.AI team experimented with voting mechanisms, discovering that methods which reflect strong feelings and ensure equal participation are perceived as more democratic and fair.
The report also addressed public concerns about AI’s role in governance. While some participants initially expressed nervousness about AI in policy writing, deliberations led to a growing optimism about the public’s ability to guide AI development.
In response to these findings, OpenAI plans to implement ideas from public participants. The company is forming a new Collective Alignment team, comprising researchers and engineers, to develop a system for collecting and integrating public input into the behavior of OpenAI’s models, products, and services. This initiative represents a significant step towards more democratically aligned AI systems.
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