Anthropic, OpenAI Talk Safety. Headcounts Don’t: Parmy Olson

Artificial intelligence presents a transformative moment for society, but it appears that the number of people focused on making sure it’s safe might fit on a single transatlantic flight.

Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise given the global arms race that has propelled generative AI companies to stratospheric valuations, but it should cause some alarm. The technology makes errors, is largely untested in the wild and has shown toxic side effects on mental health. Yet a rough estimate of how these companies are staffed suggests a disturbing imbalance, with investment into safety-oriented roles looking like a rounding error compared with the money going into making their systems more powerful.

There ...