Yan Leike

Extracted Attributes

• PhD

  Machine Learning, Australian National University

• Born

  1986 or 1987

• Occupation

  AI alignment researcher

• Recognition

  Time's 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023

• PhD Supervisor

  Marcus Hutter

• Master's Degree

  Computer Science

• Undergraduate Education

  University of Freiburg, Germany

• Influences (AI Alignment)

  Ray Kurzweil, Eliezer Yudkowsky

Timeline

• Completed his PhD in machine learning at the Australian National University under the supervision of Marcus Hutter. (Source: web_search_results[0], web_search_results[1])

  Before 2021

• Made a six-month postdoctoral fellowship at the Future of Humanity Institute. (Source: web_search_results[0])

  Before 2021

• Joined DeepMind to focus on empirical AI safety research, where he collaborated with Shane Legg. (Source: web_search_results[0])

  Before 2021

• Joined OpenAI. (Source: web_search_results[0], web_search_results[3])

  2021

• Was featured in Time's list of the 100 most influential people in AI. (Source: web_search_results[0], web_search_results[3])

  2023

• Became co-leader of OpenAI's newly introduced 'superalignment' project with Ilya Sutskever, aiming to align future artificial superintelligences. (Source: web_search_results[0])

  2023-06

• The Superalignment team, co-led by Leike and Sutskever, was officially announced with a four-year mission to ensure AI systems much smarter than humans follow human intent. (Source: web_search_results[3])

  2023-07

• Announced his resignation from OpenAI. (Source: web_search_results[2])

  2024-05-15

• OpenAI dissolved the superalignment group days after his resignation. (Source: web_search_results[2])

  2024-05

• Announced that he had joined rival AI startup Anthropic to continue the superalignment mission. (Source: web_search_results[2], web_search_results[4])

  2024-05-28

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of research in computer science that develops and studies methods and software that enable machines to perceive their environment and use learning and intelligence to take actions that maximize their chances of achieving defined goals. High-profile applications of AI include advanced web search engines (e.g., Google Search); recommendation systems (used by YouTube, Amazon, and Netflix); virtual assistants (e.g., Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa); autonomous vehicles (e.g., Waymo); generative and creative tools (e.g., language models and AI art); and superhuman play and analysis in strategy games (e.g., chess and Go). However, many AI applications are not perceived as AI: "A lot of cutting edge AI has filtered into general applications, often without being called AI because once something becomes useful enough and common enough it's not labeled AI anymore." Various subfields of AI research are centered around particular goals and the use of particular tools. The traditional goals of AI research include learning, reasoning, knowledge representation, planning, natural language processing, perception, and support for robotics. To reach these goals, AI researchers have adapted and integrated a wide range of techniques, including search and mathematical optimization, formal logic, artificial neural networks, and methods based on statistics, operations research, and economics. AI also draws upon psychology, linguistics, philosophy, neuroscience, and other fields. Some companies, such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta, aim to create artificial general intelligence (AGI)—AI that can complete virtually any cognitive task at least as well as a human. Artificial intelligence was founded as an academic discipline in 1956, and the field went through multiple cycles of optimism throughout its history, followed by periods of disappointment and loss of funding, known as AI winters. Funding and interest vastly increased after 2012 when graphics processing units started being used to accelerate neural networks and deep learning outperformed previous AI techniques. This growth accelerated further after 2017 with the transformer architecture. In the 2020s, an ongoing period of rapid progress in advanced generative AI became known as the AI boom. Generative AI's ability to create and modify content has led to several unintended consequences and harms, which has raised ethical concerns about AI's long-term effects and potential existential risks, prompting discussions about regulatory policies to ensure the safety and benefits of the technology.

Web Search Results

• Jan Leike - Wikipedia

  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia AI alignment researcher Jan Leike (born 1986 or 1987) is an AI alignment researcher who has worked at DeepMind and OpenAI. He joined Anthropic in May 2024. ## Education [edit] Jan Leike obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Freiburg in Germany. After earning a master's degree in computer science, he pursued a PhD in machine learning at the Australian National University under the supervision of Marcus Hutter. ## Career [edit] [...] Leike made a six-month postdoctoral fellowship at the Future of Humanity Institute before joining DeepMind to focus on empirical AI safety research, where he collaborated with Shane Legg. ### OpenAI [edit] [...] In 2021, Leike joined OpenAI. In June 2023, he and Ilya Sutskever became the co-leaders of the newly introduced "superalignment" project, which aimed to determine how to align future artificial superintelligences within four years to ensure their safety. This project involved automating AI alignment research using relatively advanced AI systems. At the time, Sutskever was OpenAI's Chief Scientist, and Leike was the Head of Alignment. Leike was featured in Time's list of the 100 most influential

• Jan Leike - H+Pedia

  Jan Leike is a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, Research Associate with the Future of Humanity Institute, and Research Advisor to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He completed his PhD on general reinforcement learning under the supervision of Marcus Hutter"). He has written papers on topics such as Solomonoff induction and AIXI. He has also co-authored a paper, supported by PETRL, on defining happiness and suffering for reinforcement learners. Leike was hired by DeepMind in

• OpenAI former safety leader Jan Leike joins rival AI startup Anthropic

  Jan Leike, one of the lead safety researchers at OpenAI who resigned from the artificial intelligence company earlier this month, said on Tuesday that he has joined rival AI startup Anthropic. Leike announced his resignation from OpenAI early on May 15, days before the company dissolved the superalignment group that he co-led. That team, formed in 2023, focused on long-term AI risks. OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever announced his departure in a post on X on May 14. [...] Jan Leike, one of the lead safety researchers at OpenAI who resigned earlier this month, said on Tuesday that he is joining rival AI startup Anthropic. Leike announced his resignation from OpenAI on May 15, days before the company dissolved the superalignment group he co-led. Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images [...] Form 1st).

• Jan Leike: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023 - Time Magazine

  Jan Leike is hoping his work might make it easier to tell. Leike, 36, co-leads the Superalignment team at top AI lab OpenAI, which wants to build AI systems today that help us to ensure that powerful future AI systems behave as their creators intend. [...] Now Leike is part of one of the most ambitious alignment efforts yet. The Superalignment team, announced in July, have given themselves four years to “ensure AI systems much smarter than humans follow human intent.” To help them achieve this task, they have 20% of the scarce, expensive computational resources available to OpenAI, and the considerable brainpower of Ilya Sutskever, chief scientist at OpenAI, who is co-leading the team with Leike. [...] Leike has spent more than a decade thinking about alignment, ever since reading works by Ray Kurzweil and Eliezer Yudkowsky. After working closely with pathbreaking alignment researchers—including Marcus Hutter, then a professor at Australian National University and now a senior researcher at DeepMind; Nick Bostrom, author of Superintelligence; and Shane Legg of DeepMind—Leike joined OpenAI in 2021.

• OpenAI Safety Leader Jan Leike Joins Rival Firm Anthropic - Forbes

  Former OpenAI executive and key researcher Jan Leike on Tuesday announced he has joined artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, defecting to a rival less than two weeks after he resigned over safety concerns, as the ChatGPT maker fends off criticism it is favoring profits over long-term safety. ## Key Facts [...] Leike, who until recently jointly led OpenAI’s long-term safety program alongside company cofounder Ilya Sutskever, said he is “excited” to join AI firm Anthropic “to continue the superalignment mission!”