Open research is the key to unlocking safer AI

"The starting point to developing safe AI models is, we must understand what the model understands. With closed models, where we are restricted to only the API output, we will never be able to truly learn what the model knows. Without an understanding of what the model knows, how it’s leveraging data to formulate a response, and what data is in the model, we have no hope of conducting the research that is required to design and effectively regulate AI models.

The dynamics of making closed models safer is a mixed bag. Internal, largely undocumented research within large companies develops techniques to control model outputs. At the same time, researchers attempt to understand and “jailbreak” the models, sharing the information freely with model providers. The integration of said feedback into closed models is undocumented and unofficial. Ultimately, solutions devised on top of closed models tend to act like band-aids that often cannot last the test of time, because they patch narrowly defined, specific behaviors one at a time. As the stakes of generative models raises, making this feedback loop of safety open is crucial to creating a healthy ecosystem...."