Dan Hendrycks, a outstanding AI security advocate and advisor to Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has taken on yet one more position at Scale AI, a buzzy $14 billion-valued enterprise.
He’s now an advisor to the corporate, based on his LinkedIn profile. Scale AI, which labels information for company clients to coach their AI fashions, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Hendrycks shared a press release about his new position: “We’ve been collaborating on research and evaluating the safety and capabilities of models over the past year,” he stated. “As with other advisory roles, I don’t have any equity. This advisory role pays me 12x my xAI role—namely $12 a year instead of $1.”
Including Hendrycks as an advisor provides Scale AI somebody with connections all through the AI business. It additionally could assist the corporate increase its ties to the Trump administration.
Scale AI already has a hyperlink by Michael Kratsios, the previous chief know-how officer in Trump’s first administration who later turned the corporate’s managing director. Kratsios lately introduced his departure from Scale AI to affix Trump’s presidential transition group.
In the meantime, Hendrycks is near Musk, who supported Trump throughout his marketing campaign and has since been appointed to move up a brand new Division of Authorities Effectivity. Hendrycks began advising Musk about AI security when he based xAI in 2023.
As founder and government director of the nonprofit Middle for AI Security, Hendrycks is a number one advocate concerning the potential risks of AI. These dangers embrace malicious actors growing bioweapons, extra harmful cyberattacks, and autonomous AI brokers going rogue.
Hendrycks made headlines this summer time by enjoying an enormous position in drafting California’s SB-1047. The invoice was meant to ascertain security and regulatory requirements for the event and deployment of superior AI.
However the proposed laws sparked fierce pushback from by the tech business, together with by billionaire investor Marc Andreessen and AI pioneer Fei Fei Li, over its potential to stifle innovation. California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who sponsored the invoice, likened the controversy to a “Jets vs. Sharks” feud.
The invoice, which handed California’s state meeting and senate, was in the end vetoed in September by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In the course of the negotiations associated to SB-1047, Hendrycks was criticized for being an investor in Grey Swan AI, an organization targeted on growing instruments to audit dangers related to AI fashions. These critics alleged he had a battle of curiosity as a result of the invoice would require impacted corporations use auditing instruments. In response, Hendrycks posted on X that he would divest from Grey Swan and proceed his work as an unpaid advisor.
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