OpenAI Hires Former White House Official as Its Chief Economist
Aaron Chatterji was chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Biden and served on President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Aaron "Ronnie" Chatterji in an outdoor corridor with stone walls and pointed arches.
Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, OpenAI’s new in-house economist, on the campus of Duke University.Credit...Cornell Watson for The New York Times
Cade Metz
By Cade Metz
Cade Metz has covered the artificial intelligence field for 15 years.
Oct. 22, 2024
Sign up for the On Tech newsletter. Get our best tech reporting from the week. Get it sent to your inbox.
OpenAI, where executives and researchers dream of building artificial intelligence that could one day change the world, has hired a chief economist with ties to two Democratic presidential administrations.
OpenAI said on Tuesday that it had hired Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, a professor of business and public policy at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. He previously served as a senior economist in President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers and as chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Biden.
The addition of a chief economist is indicative of OpenAI’s enormous ambition and where its executives see their company in the tech industry’s pecking order. Silicon Valley giants like Google and Facebook hired seasoned economists early in their transformations from promising start-ups into trillion-dollar companies whose technologies changed global markets.
OpenAI hopes to eventually build A.I. that changes office work, scientific research and many other tasks, and the company acknowledges that its technologies could eventually replace some workers. The company has also spent months negotiating with investors, chipmakers and governments around the world to build new chip-making plants and expand the pool of computer data centers used to build advanced A.I.
“We are going to need big investment from both the public and the private sector to make sure this infrastructure is in place, so that we can remain competitive as a country and harness the benefits of the technology,” Dr. Chatterji said in an interview with The New York Times.
The move is also the latest in a line of high-profile hires and appointments by the San Francisco start-up as it attempts to move past a year of turmoil. Last November, four members of the OpenAI board ousted its chief executive, Sam Altman. He was reinstated five days later after Microsoft, the company’s biggest investor, offered to hire its entire staff.
Since then, OpenAI, the maker of the online chatbot ChatGPT, has brought in a who’s who of tech executives, disinformation experts and A.I. safety researchers. This summer, it named Chris Lehane, a lawyer who served in the Clinton White House, as its vice president of global affairs.
The company has also added seven board members, including Paul M. Nakasone, a four-star Army general who ran the National Security Agency, and Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury Secretary who worked with Dr. Chatterji in the Obama White House.
Editors’ Picks
Are Organic Foods Really More Nutritious?
In ‘Smile 2’ and ‘Trap,’ Pop Stardom Looks Pretty Terrifying
The Hard-Shell Taco Deserves Your Respect
“Professor Chatterji’s deep understanding of the dynamics that shape our economy and society will guide OpenAI’s mission to create A.I. tools that fuel growth, solve complex challenges and foster long-term prosperity,” Mr. Summers said in a statement.
Image
Exterior views of Open AI’s San Francisco headquarters.
OpenAI, the maker of the online chatbot ChatGPT, has brought in a who’s who of tech executives, disinformation experts and A.I. safety researchers. Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times
(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December, claiming that they had infringed The Times’s copyright in training A.I. systems.)
In 2002, four years after it was founded, Google hired University of California, Berkeley economist Hal Varian, who helped design Google’s online ad auctions — the heart of its business — and has spent more than two decades shaping Google’s corporate strategy and public policy. This summer, in the Justice Department’s antitrust suit against Google, Dr. Varian was called to testify over memos he sent not long after joining the company.
“Hal Varian did a brilliant job for Google on many fronts, from helping them build new revenue models to predicting how technologies would affect the economy,” said Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. “There are a variety of things you could do with OpenAI’s technology that an economist can help them understand.”
During his most recent stint at the White House, Dr. Chatterji helped coordinate the Biden administration’s implementation of the C.H.I.P.S. and Science Act, a 2022 law that authorized roughly $280 billion in new funding for the development and manufacturing of computer chips in the United States. His understanding of that project — and his political connections — could help OpenAI as it seeks to create additional computing power for training A.I. systems.
Dr. Chatterji, who has spent years exploring the effect of technological innovation on the larger economy, could also help the company steer through its potential impact on the economy.
A paper written in part by OpenAI researchers estimated that 80 percent of the U.S. work force could have at least 10 percent of their work tasks affected by A.I. technologies and that 19 percent of workers might see at least 50 percent of their tasks impacted.
The worry among some experts, including Dr. Brynjolfsson, is that these technologies could boost the productivity of the most skilled and wealthy workers while replacing others who have fewer resources.
“We have to make sure we develop these technologies in a way that the benefits are distributed evenly and don’t create the divides that we have seen with previous generations of technology,” Dr. Chatterji said.
OpenAI, Chips, Data Centers and Jobs
Behind OpenAI’s Audacious Plan to Make A.I. Flow Like Electricity
Sept. 25, 2024
OpenAI, Still Haunted by Its Chaotic Past, Is Trying to Grow Up
Sept. 3, 2024
In Reversal Because of A.I., Office Jobs Are Now More at Risk
Aug. 24, 2023
Cade Metz writes about artificial intelligence, driverless cars, robotics, virtual reality and other emerging areas of technology. More about Cade Metz
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 23, 2024, Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: OpenAI Hires Chief Economist With Ties to Biden and Obama. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: OpenAI, Commerce Department, White House Council of Economic Advisers, Lawrence Summers
Share full article
Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence
News and Analysis
OpenAI hired Aaron Chatterji, a professor of business and public policy at Duke University, to be its chief economist. He previously served in both the Obama and Biden administrations.
Cerebras, a chip company with bold ambitions to take on Nvidia, filed for an I.P.O., taking a key step toward being among the first A.I. companies to go public since the release of ChatGPT.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a California A.I. safety bill, blocking the most ambitious proposal in the nation aimed at curtailing the growth of the technology.
The Age of A.I.
Nevada used A.I. to find students in need of help. The new system cut the number of students deemed “at risk” in the state by 200,000, leading to tough moral and ethical questions over which children deserve extra assistance.
A project at Stanford points to the need for institutional innovation, especially in government, to increase the odds that A.I. enhances democracy.
From hurricanes to wildfires, a new generation of technologies driven by artificial intelligence could help utilities better plan for the risk of extreme weather to their electric grid.
Five examples of mastering algorithms
We live in a world where algorithms quietly shape our lives in ways we might not even recognize.
They feed us ads that influence what we purchase and where we live. They shape what we value and our taste in everything from food to music to humor. And, in some cases, they can bring together complete strangers who would have never met. Today, 60% of couples rely on algorithms to meet their spouse (via online dating apps).
In the balance of power between individuals and tech companies, big tech today has far greater influence. But individuals are still finding ways to harness algorithms for their own gain.
In this newsletter, we explore five examples of how individuals are asserting their agency over algorithms or opening themselves up to algorithm-created possibilities and connections. Algorithms might be powerful, but that doesn’t mean users are powerless.
// #1: Algorithms & Unexpected Connections
It’s easy to forget the original promise of social media: to connect people. Amidst all the ads and data harvesting, people are using algorithms to open themselves up to opportunities and increase the likelihood of chance encounters—from finding love via online dating sites to networking for their career. In the US, 30% of adults, and over half of adults under age 30, use dating apps.
Happn, a dating site, uses a location-based algorithm to match users based on where their paths have crossed. It has over 150 million users globally and has led to millions of dates. Its power is in helping increase the chances that someone can find a way to connect with the people they might bump into as they go about their day.
A 2022 study by researchers at MIT found that algorithms on LinkedIn that suggested people who were loose acquaintances led to greater job mobility than algorithms that just promoted strong ties and close connections. The conclusion: algorithms that served up unexpected connections could lead to greater career advancement and more opportunity. Of note: the A/B test central to this research spurred questions of ethics.
// #2: Algorithms & Side Hustles
There are 41 million gig workers in the US. In many cases, their employment and compensation are controlled by algorithms. In the book Inside the Invisible Cage: How Algorithms Control Workers, author Hatim Rahman argues that the algorithms that underpin the operations of platforms like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash create an “invisible cage” where workers are controlled by opaque systems they neither understand nor influence.
However, a New York Times article last month profiled how some gig workers in New York City are making up to $6,000 per month by gaming the algorithms from Citi Bikes, a bike-sharing program. Citi Bikes compensates gig workers to move bikes from full stations to empty stations to ensure there are bikes at every station. Soon, people noticed an opportunity: the algorithm that dictated compensation worked on a sliding scale. Under the right conditions, gig workers could get paid 3-4x their normal rate for repositioning a bike. Working as a team, they quickly shuffled bikes to and from stations just blocks away and made $4.80 for each one-way trip. For one off-Broadway actor in New York, it was enough to pay rent and cover bills.
Brent Mittelstadt, a philosopher at the University of Oxford who studies the ethics of algorithms, concluded that this “scam” was harmless. More importantly, he argued, any time gig workers can reclaim some power from algorithms, it’s a win.
//
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
//
// #3: Algorithms & Break-out Stars
Algorithms can create kings and queens out of mere mortals. The internet is full of people who became famous overnight due to one song or video going viral.
Lil Nas X—now famous for his hit song “Old Town Road”—worked the TikTok algorithm aggressively to promote this first song. “I promoted the song as a meme for months until it caught on to TikTok and it became way bigger.” he said. That effort paid off, and the song soon went viral. Lil Nas X rode his algorithm-driven success to the top of the Billboard charts (and two Grammys).
Sheehan Quirke went from working at McDonald’s with zero followers to over 1.5 million X followers in 18 months. Quirke, known as the Cultural Tutor on X, explores topics like historical figures, classical music, architecture, and art history. Like Lil Nas X, his road to stardom started inauspiciously. His first tweets were met with relative silence. But then the algorithm took one tweet viral, and then another, and soon, his followers grew exponentially.
Lil Nas X and Quirke weren’t reclaiming their power from algorithms that had stolen it. Instead, they studied how the algorithms worked and then used them to catapult into greater fame and opportunity.
// #4: Algorithms & Data Boundaries
For some in the artist and author community, the fact that AI algorithms are being trained on their original work without permission amounts to theft. A new tool, called Nightshade, enables artists to add imperceptible changes to their digital art. Those changes can mess up training data and be challenging to remove.
Another tool, Glaze, protects artists by masking their unique style. Similar to Nightshade, it adds slight changes to a piece of art so that the AI algorithm interprets the style in a completely different way (ex. an image that is realistic is interpreted by the algorithm as abstract).
Such small acts of subterfuge might pale in comparison to larger efforts to file copyright lawsuits against tech companies like OpenAI and Microsoft, like the lawsuits from major US newspapers earlier this year claiming copyright infringement. But they’re giving artists a newfound power to push back against tech giants and reclaim some control over their intellectual property.
// #5: Algorithms & Information Sources
For the everyday internet user, algorithms have the most influence over what content shows up on social media and news feeds. Thanks to algorithms, the content we consume online has become increasingly personalized for us. But some users are fighting back:
They’re changing browsers to ones like DuckDuckGo and Brave that emphasize privacy and ad-blockers.
They’re changing search engines and prioritizing ones like Freespoke that provide more balanced perspectives.
They’re “ruining their search history” by using a tool that generates random search queries to prevent Google from building an accurate picture of who they are.
An article in WIRED earlier this month outlined various ways that users can stop their data from being used by AI, from changing settings on their LinkedIn profiles to submitting a request to Slack to ensure their private messages aren't scraped.
// A people powered internet
Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt wrote in Fast Company earlier this year that “our current reality is…best described as digital feudalism. Like poor, powerless subjects of monarchs and aristocrats, we are serfs, subjugated by a small group of companies that have exploited a feudal internet architecture.”
Tech companies wield outsized power—which is why the efforts of individuals who attempt to reclaim control of their digital experience are no substitute for bigger change: regulation, policy change, and by-design changes to platforms and algorithms that prioritize interoperability, user privacy, and copyright enforcement.
The People’s Bid to acquire TikTok is one such structural change to rebalance the power between tech companies and individuals.
There are hundreds of organizations, like those in Project Liberty’s Alliance, who are committed to building a better web, but that effort won’t happen overnight. In the meantime, individuals are not without agency to harness the potential of algorithms for their benefit.
As the poet and author, Alice Walker, once said, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Project Liberty news
// Frank McCourt went on the StrictlyVC podcast
Project Liberty Founder Frank McCourt joined the StrictlyVC podcast to talk about The People’s Bid to acquire TikTok and the plan to transform it into a decentralized platform where users have control over their data and identity. Listen here.
Other notable headlines
// 👩💻 An op-ed in Tech Policy Press explored the benefits of federated, decentralized social media platforms and governance structures that empower consumers.
// 📱 A Tech Policy Press podcast discussed how political propagandists are exploiting the features of encrypted messaging platforms to manipulate voters.
// 🚗 An article in Bloomberg highlighted how Uber and Lyft used a loophole to deny NYC drivers millions in pay.
// 🍜 TikTok wants to turn millions of Americans into paid shopping influencers, according to an article in Rest of World.
// 🗽 Global internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year, according to Random House’s Freedom on the Net 2024 report.
// 🤖 An article in Project Syndicate argued that we are outsourcing our future to for-profit AI, where the returns will remain private, but any future costs will inevitably be borne by the public.
// 🤔 The Pentagon wants to use AI to create deepfake internet users, according to an article in The Intercept.
Partner news & opportunities
// AI safety risks on Lawfare Daily podcast
Jonathan Zittrain recently appeared on the Lawfare Daily podcast to discuss the critical safety risks posed by autonomous AI systems, as outlined in his recent essay for The Atlantic. He highlighted the growing concern over AI acting independently on behalf of humans.
// How online communities can support investigative journalism
Thursday, October 24th, 12:30pm ET, Virtual
Join Johanna Wild, a 2023-24 Nieman-Berkman Klein Fellow, for an insightful virtual discussion on the vital role of online volunteer communities in investigative journalism. Wild, representing Bellingcat, will highlight how open-source researchers collaborate with journalists to analyze online data and uncover stories of public interest. RSVP here.
// GameWell 2024: virtual summit on video games & family connections
October 25th-26th
Join MToto News and Dare to Dad for GameWell 2024, a free virtual summit exploring how video gaming can strengthen family connections. Register here to learn expert strategies for turning gaming into a positive force at home.
Join The People's Bid
People across the country and across different walks of life are ready for a change in their online experience. That’s why over 2,000 people have signed on to The People’s Bid for TikTok.
If you’re ready to join the thousands of Americans signing on to The People’s Bid for TikTok, add your name at ThePeoplesBid.com.
What did you think of today's newsletter?
We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. Reply to this email.
/ Project Liberty builds solutions that help people take back control of their lives in the digital age by reclaiming a voice, choice, and stake in a better internet.
Thank you for reading.
Facebook
LinkedIn
Sin título-3_Mesa de trabajo 1
Instagram
Project Liberty footer logo
501 W 30th Street, Suite 40A,
New York, New York, 10001
Unsubscribe Manage Preferences
© 2024 Project Liberty