Ep 2. OpenAI has always been a bit different | Evan Morikawa

Episode 2 of the The Edge of Infinity podcast, hosted by Infinity AI | Hosted by Lina Avancini Colucci, titled "Ep 2. OpenAI has always been a bit different | Evan Morikawa" was published on November 2, 2023 and runs 70 minutes.

November 2, 2023 ·70m · The Edge of Infinity

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Summary

In this episode, we talk with Evan Morikawa who leads Applied Engineering at OpenAI. Evan's team is responsible for all the backend, frontend, and inference infrastructure for all of OpenAI's products from ChatGPT to the APIs to DALLE. OpenAI is one of the most important companies in the world and they are on track to be one of the - if not the first - inventor of AGI. OpenAI recently divided the Applied Engineering group into multiple different teams but, at the time of launch of ChatGPT and DALLE, Evan managed all (!) the applied engineers at the company. Hope you enjoy my conversation with Evan - one of the people who brought ChatGPT into the world. --- Full show notes can be found here: https://blog.infinity.ai/ep-2-openai-has-always-been-a-bit-different-evan-morikawa-f43ddfe02b4c --- Time Stamps 02:21 Remembering ChatGPT launch day 08:31 What Evan's team (Applied Engineering) does at OpenAI 12:44 The craziest time at OpenAI 14:24 Was he surprised by the reception of GPT4? made less of a splash than ChatGPT? 16:11 What's the balance between shipping things versus doing R&D? 18:38 What Evan has learned from Sam Altman 23:29 The difference between being an employee versus a founder 26:53 The future of SW engineering given AI and tools like CoPilot 31:42 Is GPT4 AGI? Evan's definition of AGI is interesting. 33:59 How will we know we've gotten there? 35:15 Lina's definition of AGI 39:25 Are we missing any fundamental pieces that are needed to get to AGI? 41:33 What is Olin College and why you should go there 47:54 Advice for early career folks who want to get a job at OpenAI 53:04 Evan's advice for balancing career and kids 1:00:00 Favorite paper from the past 6 months 1:00:03 Our discussion about a quote from "The Beginning of Infinity" (see below) --- "We have a duty to be optimistic. […] An optimistic civilization is open and not afraid to innovate, and is based on traditions of criticism." - David Deutsch, "The Beginning of Infinity" --- Evan's Accounts Twitter: https://twitter.com/E0M LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmorikawa/ Lina's Accounts Twitter: https://twitter.com/lina_colucci LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lina-colucci/ --- THE EDGE OF INFINITY: Imagining the Future of AI Will AI change the world? Everyone agrees that AI will change a lot about society, but no one knows exactly how. My name is Lina Colucci. I founded Infinity AI and got my PhD from MIT and Harvard. I talk to other AI founders, engineers, and researchers who are building the future of artificial intelligence. Together, we predict the ways AI will shape our world both in the near-term and as we project out to infinity. Join us and let's imagine the future of AI together.

Episode Description

OpenAI is one of the most important companies in the world and they are on track to be one of the - if not the first - inventor of AGI. OpenAI recently divided the Applied Engineering group into multiple different teams but, at the time of launch of ChatGPT and DALLE, Evan managed all (!) the applied engineers at the company.

Hope you enjoy my conversation with Evan - one of the people who brought ChatGPT into the world.

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Full show notes can be found here: https://blog.infinity.ai/ep-2-openai-has-always-been-a-bit-different-evan-morikawa-f43ddfe02b4c

--- Time Stamps 02:21 Remembering ChatGPT launch day 08:31 What Evan's team (Applied Engineering) does at OpenAI 12:44 The craziest time at OpenAI 14:24 Was he surprised by the reception of GPT4? made less of a splash than ChatGPT? 16:11 What's the balance between shipping things versus doing R&D? 18:38 What Evan has learned from Sam Altman 23:29 The difference between being an employee versus a founder 26:53 The future of SW engineering given AI and tools like CoPilot 31:42 Is GPT4 AGI? Evan's definition of AGI is interesting. 33:59 How will we know we've gotten there? 35:15 Lina's definition of AGI 39:25 Are we missing any fundamental pieces that are needed to get to AGI? 41:33 What is Olin College and why you should go there 47:54 Advice for early career folks who want to get a job at OpenAI 53:04 Evan's advice for balancing career and kids 1:00:00 Favorite paper from the past 6 months 1:00:03 Our discussion about a quote from "The Beginning of Infinity" (see below) --- "We have a duty to be optimistic. […] An optimistic civilization is open and not afraid to innovate, and is based on traditions of criticism." - David Deutsch, "The Beginning of Infinity" --- Evan's Accounts Twitter: https://twitter.com/E0M LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmorikawa/ Lina's Accounts Twitter: https://twitter.com/lina_colucci LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lina-colucci/ --- THE EDGE OF INFINITY: Imagining the Future of AI Will AI change the world? Everyone agrees that AI will change a lot about society, but no one knows exactly how. My name is Lina Colucci. I founded Infinity AI and got my PhD from MIT and Harvard. I talk to other AI founders, engineers, and researchers who are building the future of artificial intelligence. Together, we predict the ways AI will shape our world both in the near-term and as we project out to infinity.

Join us and let's imagine the future of AI together.