Letter about AI 'breakthrough' prompted ousting of Altman: Reuters

The news: OpenAI boss Sam Altman's temporary exile came after some colleagues sent the board a letter warning of a discovery that could threaten humanity, according to a Reuters report, which cited unnamed sources and noted that it hadn't seen the letter. The letter about the algorithm, called Q* (pronounced Q-Star), prompted the board to oust Altman.

The context: It was announced yesterday that Altman would return as OpenAI CEO, four days after he was fired from the company he helped create, although the board did not detail the reasons why. About 700 employees of OpenAI had threatened to quit and join Microsoft if Altman was not reinstated.

OpenAI is best known for the online artificial intelligence application ChatGPT.

A source told Reuters that Q* could be a breakthrough in the search for superintelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence.