President Herzog: “Before our meeting this morning, I wrote some notes, and could not resist asking ChatGPT “what I should talk about with Sam Altman?” It recommended exactly these issues of ethics and morality, and partnership with Israel. Your software is wise indeed. let’s do Tikkun Olam together.”
President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, this morning (Monday), met with high-tech entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, who was visiting Israel. Also present at the meeting were the company’s co-founder and Chief Scientist, Ilya Sutskever, COO, Brad Lighthcap, and VP of Public Policy, Anna Makanju. The President was accompanied in the meeting by his Chief of Staff Diklah Cohen Sheinfeld, Bureau Head Adaya Leibovich, and the President's Advisor on Climate, Tal Gelbert.
OpenAI is a research laboratory for artificial intelligence (AI). The company has several products including most prominently ChatGPT, an AI language model that allows users to ask questions and receive natural language responses, and DALL-E, a tool that generates original images from textual descriptions.
Israel - a leading force in AI
President Herzog began by saying: “We are very excited to welcome you to Israel. Clearly Israel is a powerhouse in terms of technology and innovation, and a leading force in the development of artificial intelligence especially. Your visit has created enormous interest across the country – a country that wants to do good and serve the world with purpose.”
He added, “I want to congratulate you on the open letter you sent with leaders in the industry. Clearly side by side with the great opportunities of this incredible technology, there are also many risks to humanity and to the independence of human beings in the future. We must make sure that this development is used for the wellbeing of humanity. You can see the advantages and disadvantages, and you are the first to mention it openly and boldly.
By way of example, I am on my way now to a large conference of cardiologists – medicine will be dramatically improved by AI, however, issues of ethics, and morality, questions of fake news, show the risks and I truly agree with you that this is like developing nuclear weapons, and therefore there has to be an international convention and organization that will deal with it.”
The President noted, “This field fascinates me on a personal and national level. Israel is interested and eager to be involved in the development in this field, and I am personally interested and eager to be involved in leading a discussion within Israel and worldwide on the ethics and morality, and other aspects of this technology.
Before our meeting this morning, I wrote some notes, and could not resist asking ChatGPT “what I should talk about with Sam Altman?” It recommended exactly these issues of ethics and morality, and partnership with Israel. Your software is wise indeed.
A chance for Tikun Olam
He concluded, “In welcoming you, I want to say, since you were born in the Jewish community of St. Louis – a community that I greatly appreciate – you learned about the concept of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Our purpose is not just to make profits, but also to serve humanity and the future, so let’s do Tikkun Olam together.”
Sam Altman thanked the President and said, “It is so very special for me to visit Israel. The rate at which the tech and startup community in Israel is embracing AI is incredible to watch.
Of course, we do need to balance that with all the risks you just talked about, but I have been very heartened as I have been doing this trip around the world, getting to meet world leaders, in seeing the thoughtfulness, the focus, and the urgency on figuring out how we mitigate these very huge risks that are coming so that we can enjoy benefits of this technology. Everyone wants to figure that out. I think the intent is really there. The energy on making use of the technology and its positive benefits is fantastic to see, and I am sure Israel will play a huge role – it’s tech community is truly amazing.”