– codename for the US government's project to produce the first nuclear bomb in World War II.
"Technology happens because it is possible," Altman then said – paraphrasing a Robert Oppenheimer speech where he justified creating the nuclear bombs as a necessary expansion of human knowledge. Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project. He echoed similar ideas when replying to the protestor, saying: "I think a race towards AGI is a bad thing, and I think not making safety progress is a bad thing," per The Guardian.
Altman said the only way to achieve safety is with"capability progress," meaning building stronger AI systems in order to understand how they work – even if that's risky, The Guardian reported. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside US working hours. Subscribe to push notifications