Category: Bioethics Education

(New York Times) – This week, OpenAI started testing ads on ChatGPT. I also resigned from the company after spending two years as a researcher helping to shape how A.I. models were built and priced, and guiding early safety policies before standards were set in stone.

I once believed I could help the people building A.I. get ahead of the problems it would create. This week confirmed my slow realization that OpenAI seems to have stopped asking the questions I’d joined to help answer.

I don’t believe ads are immoral or unethical. A.I. is expensive to run, and ads can be a critical source of revenue. But I have deep reservations about OpenAI’s strategy. (Read More)

(WSJ) – ChatGPT’s 4o model was beloved by many users, but controversial for its sycophancy and real-world harms linked to some conversations

Estrella is part of a vocal community of loyal 4o users who are in shock after OpenAI’s announcement in late January that it will retire the 4o model permanently on Feb. 13, saying its traffic had dwindled. The change means that paying ChatGPT users, who can pick which model they talk to, will have to select from other models that 4o fans say feel more distant.

The announcement signaled the end of the road for an AI model that proved sticky for users, helping drive OpenAI’s fast consumer growth and attracting a set of fans for whom it felt like a friend and confidant. But it has also been criticized for being overly sycophantic toward users, and doctors have linked it with cases of chatbot users developing psychotic delusions. (Read More)

(Forbes)- An Anthropic staffer who led a team researching AI safety departed the company Monday, darkly warning both of a world “in peril” and the difficulty in being able to let “our values govern our actions”—without any elaboration—in a public resignation letter that also suggested the company had set its values aside.

Mrinank Sharma, who had led Anthropic’s safeguards research team since its launch last year, shared his resignation letter in a post on X Monday morning, which quickly garnered attention and has been viewed 1 million times. (Read More)

(Minnesota Star Tribune) – The school is changing an elective course while still working with the Eden Prairie-based health care giant after students raised concerns.

The University of Minnesota is revising a Medical School class financially supported by UnitedHealth Group after critics argued that the for-profit insurershouldn’t have a role in educating future doctors.

The course covers a topic called “value-based care,” an umbrella term used by the federal government and health insurers to describeprograms and contracts that promote improved health care quality at a lower cost. (Read More)

(WSJ) – The executive, who was accused of sexual discrimination against a male employee, had raised concerns about upcoming launch of erotic content

OpenAI said Beiermeister “made valuable contributions during her time at OpenAI, and her departure was not related to any issue she raised while working at the company.” 

Beiermeister served as the vice president leading OpenAI’s product policy team, which develops rules for how people can use the company’s products and helps design the enforcement mechanisms for those policies.

Her ousting came ahead of OpenAI’s planned launch early this year of a mode that will allow users to create AI erotica in ChatGPT. The planned feature, which would permit adult-themed conversation including sexual topics for adult users, has drawn criticism from researchers at the company who have studied the ways some people develop unhealthy attachments to chatbots, according to some of the people. (Read More)

(NPR) – The increased availability and effectiveness of GLP-1s at curbing appetite is adding to the vulnerabilities for some people prone to eating disorders. They’re easy to obtain online, with little screening. Meanwhile, eating disorders are very common. Nearly a tenth of people will meet the clinical benchmarks of an eating disorder at some point in their lives. And, experts say, a far greater percentage of Americans have problematic relationships with eating and body weight that fall short of the clinical definition. So far, very little is known about how GLP-1 use — or misuse — affects people who binge or restrict food, despite the prevalence of those behaviors. (Read More)

(NBC News) – Novo Nordisk said Wednesday that demand for its Wegovy pill got off to a strong start after it launched in the U.S. in early January.

By Jan. 23 — less than three weeks after it became available — about 50,000 prescriptions were being filled each week, according to the drugmaker. In total, more than 170,000 people are taking the drug.

Roughly 9 in 10 of those prescriptions were paid for out of pocket, rather than through insurance. (Read More)