A software engineer at Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) said that ChatGPT-parent OpenAI has hindered the advancement of Artificial General Intelligence or AGI by 5 to 10 years.

What Happened: In a conversation with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, which was posted on his YouTube channel on Tuesday, Google software engineer François Chollet expressed his concerns about the state of AGI research.

He stated that OpenAI has “single-handedly changed the game” and set back progress towards AGI by a significant number of years.

Chollet pointed out that a few years ago, all state-of-the-art results were openly shared and published, but this is no longer the case. He attributed this change to OpenAI’s influence, accusing them of causing a “complete closing down of frontier research publishing.”

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He went on to criticize OpenAI for triggering hype around Large Language Models or LLMs, which he believes have diverted resources and attention away from other potential areas of AGI research.

“OpenAI basically set back progress towards AGI by quite a few years probably like five to 10 years for two reasons. They caused this complete closing down of Frontier research publishing but also they triggered this initial burst of hype around LLMs and now LLMs have sucked the oxygen out of the room,” he stated.

Chollet also reminisced about the earlier days of AI research, stating that despite fewer people being involved, the rate of progress felt higher due to the exploration of more diverse directions. He lamented the current state of the field, where everyone seems to be doing variations of the same thing.