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☆ Silicon Valley's battle over AI risks is escalating fast
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Read previewThere's a battle in Silicon Valley over AI risks and safety — and it's escalating fast. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Right to WarnWhile the concerns around AI safety are nothing new, they're increasingly being amplified by those within AI companies. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours. A spokesperson previously reiterated the company's commitment to safety, highlighting an "anonymous integrity hotline" for employees to voice their concerns and the company's safety and security committee.

Persons: —, OpenAI, Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, Stuart Russell, Jacob Hilton, Hilton, Sam Altman, Helen Toner, Altman, Russell, Daniel Kokotajlo, Kokotajlo Organizations: Service, Google, Business Locations: Silicon Valley, OpenAI

☆ Opinion | Will A.I. Be a Creator or a Destroyer of Worlds?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Thomas B. Edsall | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

— artificial intelligence — is spurring curiosity and fear. paper, Acemoglu contended that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve employment prospects rather than undermine them:It is quite possible to leverage generative A.I. as an informational tool that enables various different types of workers to get better at their jobs and perform more complex tasks. Think of a generative A.I. To turn generative A.I.

Persons: Will A.I, Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, Simon Johnson, Johnson, Acemoglu, ” Acemoglu, — Tyna Eloundou, Pamela Mishkin, Sam Manning, Daniel Rock Organizations: Machines, of, World Trade Association, A.I, OpenAI, Centre, University of Pennsylvania, Labor Locations: M.I.T, United States, Autor, China, A.I

☆ OpenAI is facing controversy. Again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In today's big story, we're looking at the latest controversy to embroil OpenAI amid a difficult few months for the startup . Their takeaway was simple: OpenAI wants to have it both ways regarding how it's perceived about safety and commercialization. It's structured as a "capped-profit" company governed by a nonprofit, and Altman doesn't hold equity directly in OpenAI. The result, the VC told me, is people feel OpenAI is talking out of both sides of its mouth. It doesn't help that some OpenAI employees joined when that split was closer to 80/20 and favored safety over business, they added.

Persons: —, we've, OpenAI Justin Sullivan, Chelsea Jia Feng, Anthropic signees, Scarlett Johansson, Elon, Madeline Berg, Sam Altman, Altman, Justin Sullivan, OpenAI, It's, Patrick McMullan, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, Izzy Englander's, Griffin's, Marko Kolanovic, ANDREW CABALLERO, REYNOLDS, youngs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Keith Enright, Alyssa Powell, They've, Shopify, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Jack Sommers, George Glover, Annie Smith Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Millennium Management, Getty Images, Facebook, CNBC, BI, SpaceX Locations: OpenAI, Patrick, It's, Tesla, New York, London

☆ Ex-OpenAI employee speaks out about why he was fired: 'I ruffled some feathers'
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewA former OpenAI researcher opened up about how he "ruffled some feathers" by writing and sharing some documents related to safety at the company, and was eventually fired. Leopold Aschenbrenner, who graduated from Columbia University at 19, according to his LinkedIn, worked on OpenAI's superalignment team before he was reportedly "fired for leaking" in April. The AI researcher previously shared the memo with others at OpenAI, "who mostly said it was helpful," he added. Related storiesHR later gave him a warning about the memo, Aschenbrenner said, telling him that it was "racist" and "unconstructive" to worry about China Communist Party espionage. He said he wrote the document a couple of months after the superalignment team was announced, which referenced a four-year planning horizon.

Persons: —, Leopold Aschenbrenner, OpenAI's, podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Aschenbrenner, OpenAI, Sam, Sam Altman Organizations: Service, Columbia University, Business, China Communist Party Locations: OpenAI

☆ Why this AI researcher thinks there's a 99.9% chance AI wipes us out
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

For example, a recent study conducted with 2,700 AI researchers indicated there's only a 5% chance that AI will lead to human extinction. The AI researcher teaches computer science at the University of Louisville and just came out with a book called "AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable." Yampolskiy said he finds that unlikely since no AI model has been completely safe from people attempting to get the AI to do something it wasn't designed to do. AdvertisementGoogle AI Overviews, based on Google's Gemini AI model, is the latest product rollout that didn't stick the landing. The CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, Sam Altman, has suggested a "regulatory sandbox" where people experiment with AI and regulate it based on what "went really wrong" and what went "really right."

Persons: —, Lex Fridman, Fridman, Roman Yampolskiy, Yampolskiy, they've, Biden, Sam Altman, Altman, there'll, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, Eric Schmidt, Schmidt Organizations: Service, Business, University of Louisville, Google Locations: Africa

Meta 's chief artificial intelligence scientist Yann LeCun has spent much of the past week sparring with Elon Musk over the Tesla CEO's treatment of scientists and news organizations, and for spreading false conspiracies on social media. The spat began days earlier, on May 27, after Musk took to X to encourage people to apply for roles at his AI startup, xAI. Musk, who has previously called for the prosecution of Fauci, posted on X, "Why do Dems love Fauci so much." Musk said in a post on X Monday that LeCun has been "out of touch with AI for a long time." "I'm sure the scientists who hide behind this collective name are super happy about that," LeCun said on X.

Persons: Yann LeCun, Elon Musk, LeCun, Musk, Anthony Fauci, Fauci, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Investor Mark Cuban, Dustin Moskovitz, Musk's, Tesla, hasn't, He's Organizations: Elon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Investor, Diversity, Equity, LeCun, Medical Internet Research, Trump Locations: xAI

☆ It's all unraveling at OpenAI (again)
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-04 | by ( Madeline Berg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

In a statement to Business Insider, an OpenAI spokesperson reiterated the company's commitment to safety, highlighting an "anonymous integrity hotline" for employees to voice their concerns and the company's safety and security committee. Safety second (or third)A common theme of the complaints is that, at OpenAI, safety isn't first — growth and profits are. (In a responding op-ed, current OpenAI board members Bret Taylor and Larry Summers defended Altman and the company's safety standards.) "I have been disagreeing with OpenAI leadership about the company's core priorities for quite some time, until we finally reached a breaking point." (Altman and OpenAI said he recused himself from these deals.)

Persons: —, Sam Altman, Daniel Kokotajlo, OpenAI, Altman, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, Toner, McCauley, Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, Kokotajlo, Jan Leike, Ilya Sutskever, Leike, Stuart Russell, NDAs, Scarlett Johansson, lawyered, Johansson, " Johansson, I've, Sam Altman — Organizations: Service, New York Times, Business, Times, Twitter, Microsoft, The New York Times, BI, Street, OpenAI, OpenAI's, Apple Locations: OpenAI, Russian, Reddit

☆ Most AI researchers say the chance it will wipe out humanity is pretty low. But this AI researcher pegs it at 99.9%
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

☆ Sam Altman is considering turning OpenAI into a regular company: report
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Kwan Wei Kevin Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The 39-year-old Stanford dropout has talked about turning OpenAI into a regular, for-profit company, The Information reported on Wednesday, citing an individual who'd spoken to Altman. Unlike most companies, OpenAI says it is run as a "capped-profit" company, with its for-profit arm governed by a nonprofit. According to Toner, OpenAI's board was kept in the dark about ChatGPT's release in November 2022. Toner, who left the board shortly after Altman was reinstated as CEO, also accused him of lying about his financial interests in OpenAI. "Our focus remains on moving forward and pursuing OpenAI's mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity."

Persons: —, Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, Sam, Helen Toner, Toner, OpenAI's, Sam didn't, " Toner, Bret Taylor, OpenAI didn't Organizations: Service, Stanford, Business, Microsoft, Fund, SEC, BI Locations: OpenAI

☆ OpenAI board members brush off warning from ex-directors and defend Sam Altman as 'highly forthcoming'
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThis has been the week of dueling op-eds from former and current OpenAI board members. Current OpenAI board members Bret Taylor and Larry Summers issued a response to AI safety concerns on Thursday, stating that "the board is taking commensurate steps to ensure safety and security." In the last six months, the two current board members said they had found Altman "highly forthcoming on all relevant issues and consistently collegial with his management team." She also said that the old OpenAI board found out about ChatGPT's release on Twitter. OpenAI dissolved the superalignment safety team before later announcing the formation of a new safety committee.

Persons: —, Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley, Sam Altman, Taylor, Summers, Altman, OpenAI, WilmerHale, Toner, Openai, he's, Jan Leike, Ilya Sutskever, Gretchen Krueger, Leike, Krueger Organizations: Service, Business, Twitter, World, Summit

☆ Former OpenAI board member explains why CEO Sam Altman was fired
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, who helped oust CEO Sam Altman in November, broke her silence this week when she spoke on a podcast about events inside the company leading up to Altman's firing. Toner also said Altman did not tell the board he owned the OpenAI startup fund. Within a week, Altman was back and board members Toner and Tasha McCauley, who had voted to oust Altman, were out. In March, OpenAI announced its new board, which includes Altman, and the conclusion of an internal investigation by law firm WilmerHale into the events leading up to Altman's ouster. "The review concluded there was a significant breakdown of trust between the prior board and Sam and Greg," OpenAI board chair Bret Taylor said at the time, referring to president and co-founder Greg Brockman.

Persons: Helen Toner, CSET, Vox, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Toner, Altman, Sam, Ilya Sutskever, Jan Leike, Anthropic, OpenAI's, Sutskever, Tasha McCauley, Adam D'Angelo, WilmerHale, Greg, Bret Taylor, Greg Brockman, Taylor Organizations: The Ritz, Carlton, Twitter, OpenAI, Microsoft, Street Locations: Laguna Niguel, Dana Point , California

☆ LLMs, GPUs, and hallucinations — what you need to know about AI
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Aaron Mok | Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Here's a list of the people, companies, and terms you need to know to talk about AI, in alphabetical order. GPU: A computer chip, short for graphic processing unit, that companies use to train and deploy their AI models. Nvidia's GPUs are used by Microsoft and Meta to run their AI models. Multimodal: The ability for AI models to process text, images, and audio to generate an output. As a profession, prompt engineers are experts in fine tuning AI models on the backend to improve outputs.

Persons: —, Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI's, Dario Amodei, Claude, Demis, Hassabis, Jensen Huang, Satya, Mustafa Suleyman, OpenAI, Elon Musk, Sam Bankman, Peter Thiel, Bard, James Webb, empiricists Organizations: Service, Business, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Bing, Meta, James Webb Space Telescope Locations: OpenAI, Anthropic

☆ OpenAI Says It Has Begun Training a New Flagship A.I. Model
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Cade Metz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

OpenAI said on Tuesday that it has begun training a new flagship artificial intelligence model that would succeed the GPT-4 technology that drives its popular online chatbot, ChatGPT. The San Francisco start-up, which is one of the world’s leading A.I. The new model would be an engine for A.I. OpenAI also said it was creating a new Safety and Security Committee to explore how it should handle the risks posed by the new model and future technologies. “While we are proud to build and release models that are industry-leading on both capabilities and safety, we welcome a robust debate at this important moment,” the company said.

Persons: OpenAI, San Francisco, Apple’s Siri Organizations: Security Committee Locations: San

☆ OpenAI creates oversight team with Sam Altman on board, begins training new model
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

OpenAI on Tuesday said it created a Safety and Security Committee led by senior executives, after disbanding its previous oversight board in mid-May. The formation of a new oversight team comes after OpenAI dissolved a previous team that was focused on the long-term risks of AI. AI safety has been at the forefront of a larger debate, as the huge models that underpin applications like ChatGPT get more advanced. Bret Taylor, Adam D'Angelo, Nicole Seligman, who are all on OpenAI's board of directors, now sit on the new safety committee alongside Altman. Leike this month wrote that OpenAI's "safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products."

Persons: Sam Altman, OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever, Jan Leike, AGI, Bret Taylor, Adam D'Angelo, Nicole Seligman, Altman, CNBC's Hayden Field Organizations: Microsoft, Security Locations: Redmond , Washington

☆ OpenAI announces new safety board after employee revolt
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —OpenAI said Tuesday it has established a new committee to make recommendations to the company’s board about safety and security, weeks after dissolving a team focused on AI safety. In a blog post, OpenAI said the new committee would be led by CEO Sam Altman as well as Bret Taylor, the company’s board chair, and board member Nicole Seligman. The announcement follows the high-profile exit this month of an OpenAI executive focused on safety, Jan Leike. “At the conclusion of the 90 days, the Safety and Security Committee will share their recommendations with the full Board. Following the full Board’s review, OpenAI will publicly share an update on adopted recommendations in a manner that is consistent with safety and security.”

Persons: Washington CNN — OpenAI, OpenAI, Sam Altman, Bret Taylor, Nicole Seligman, Jan Leike, Leike, OpenAI’s, “, Ilya Sutskever, Sutskever, Altman’s, ” Organizations: Washington CNN, CNN, Safety, Security

☆ Elon Musk is being mocked by Meta's AI chief over attempts to recruit workers for xAI
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta's AI chief Yann LeCun mocked Elon Musk on X over his xAI recruitment drive. LeCun criticized Musk's AI predictions and claims of free speech absolutism. AdvertisementElon Musk is getting dragged by Meta's AI chief on his own platform. Yann LeCun, Meta's leading AI scientist, poked fun at Musk on X on Monday over his attempt to recruit AI workers for his $24 billion firm xAI. The pair have been embroiled in a fresh spat since Musk's xAI announced Sunday that it had raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round.

Persons: Yann LeCun, Elon Musk, LeCun, —, Musk's xAI, Musk, Elon Musk didn't Organizations: Service, Business, Twitter

☆ Sam Altman's time as the golden child of tech might be coming to an end
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewAI's golden boy, Sam Altman, may be starting to lose his luster. The company has also been dealing with comments from former executives that its commitment to AI safety leaves much to be desired. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. ScaJo scandalThe criticism around AI safety is the latest blow for Altman, who is fighting battles on multiple fronts.

Persons: —, Sam Altman, Gretchen Krueger, Jan Leike, Ilya Sutskever, Altman, Stuart Russell, Russell, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Morigi, OpenAI Organizations: Service, Business, Wednesday, UC Berkeley, Microsoft Locations: OpenAI, Russian

☆ Elon Musk predicts smarter-than-humans AI in 2 years. The CEO of China's Baidu says it's 10 years away
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Chesnot | Getty ImagesPARIS — Robin Li, CEO of one of China's biggest tech firms Baidu , said artificial intelligence that is smarter than humans is more than 10 years away, even as industry staple Elon Musk predicts it will emerge very soon. Artificial general intelligence, or AGI, broadly relates to AI that is as smart or smarter than humans. Li, whose company Baidu is one of China's leading AI players, signals this isn't realistic. I think [it] is more than 10 years away," Li said during a talk on Wednesday at the VivaTech conference in Paris. "[My] fear is that is that AI technology is not improving fast enough.

Persons: Robin Li, Porte de Versailles, Musk, AGI, Sam Altman, Li, it's, Everyone's Organizations: Baidu, Viva Technology, Parc, Getty, PARIS, Elon Locations: Paris, France, Europe

☆ Amazon plans to give Alexa an AI overhaul — and a monthly subscription price
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Kate Rooney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge a monthly subscription fee to offset the cost of the technology, according to people with knowledge of Amazon's plans. Amazon's subscription for Alexa will not be included in the $139 per year Prime offering, and Amazon has not yet nailed down the price point, one source said. The Alexa team worried they had invented an expensive alarm clock, weather machine and way to play Spotify music, one source said. When reached for comment, Amazon pointed to the company's annual shareholder letter released last month. It has undergone a massive reorganization, with much of the team shifting to the artificial general intelligence, or AGI, team, according to three sources.

Persons: OpenAI, Siri, Apple's, Scott Galloway, Alexa, Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy, Jassy, Alexa didn't Organizations: Alexa, Google, Amazon, Gemini, iPhones, NYU, Spotify Locations: Seattle

☆ Another OpenAI employee announced she quit over safety concerns hours before two exec resigned
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

OpenAI faces more turmoil as another employee announces she quit over safety concerns. It comes after the resignations of high-profile executives Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who ran its now-dissolved safety research team Superalignment. Krueger wrote, "I resigned a few hours before hearing the news about @ilyasut and @janleike, and I made my decision independently. I resigned a few hours before hearing the news about @ilyasut and @janleike, and I made my decision independently. Kokotajlo said he left after "losing confidence that it [OpenAI] would behave responsibly around the time of AGI."

Persons: Ilya Sutskever, Jan Leike, Gretchen Krueger, Krueger, — Gretchen Krueger, Leike, OpenAI, Daniel Kokotajlo, William Saunders, Kokotajlo, OpenAI didn't Organizations: Business

☆ Elon Musk waded in on Scarlett Johansson's dispute with OpenAI and couldn't resist throwing shade at his tech rival
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewElon Musk has waded into the dispute between Sam Altman and Scarlett Johansson. Musk has also started his own AI company, xAI, and launched a ChatGPT rival named Grok. AdvertisementAltman played into the speculation by posting the word "her" on X, but OpenAI executives denied the likeness was intentional. In a statement shared with Business Insider, Altman apologized to Johansson for not communicating better but reiterated that the Sky voice wasn't intended to mimic hers.

Persons: —, Elon, Sam Altman, Scarlett Johansson, Musk, Johansson's, OpenAI, she'd, Altman, Scarlett Johansson's, chatbot, Johansson, Jan Leike, OpenAI didn't Organizations: Service, Business

☆ OpenAI cofounder says artificial general intelligence is coming fast — and needs some 'reasonable limits'
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Read previewThe age of AGI is coming and could be just a few years away, according to OpenAI cofounder John Schulman. Speaking on a podcast with Dwarkesh Patel, Schulman predicted that artificial general intelligence could be achieved in "two or three years." A spokesperson for OpenAI told The Information that the remaining staffers were now part of its core research team. Schulman's comments come amid protest movements calling for a pause on training AI models. Groups such as Pause AI fear that if firms like OpenAI create superintelligent AI models, they could pose existential risks to humanity.

Persons: —, John Schulman, Dwarkesh Patel, Schulman, AGI, Elon Musk, OpenAI, Kayla Wood, Jan Leike, Ilya Sutskever Organizations: Service, Business, Tech, Washington Post

☆ OpenAI puts flirty ChatGPT voice that sounds like ScarJo in ‘Her’ on hold
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Brian Fung | Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —OpenAI says it’s hitting the pause button on a synthetic voice released with an update to ChatGPT that prompted comparisons with a fictional voice assistant portrayed in the quasi-dystopian film “Her” by actor Scarlett Johansson. “We’ve heard questions about how we chose the voices in ChatGPT, especially Sky,” OpenAI said in a post on X Monday. A spokesperson for the company said that structure would help OpenAI better achieve its safety objectives. OpenAI President Greg Brockman responded in a longer post on Saturday, which was signed with both his name and Altman’s, laying out the company’s approach to long-term AI safety. “We have raised awareness of the risks and opportunities of AGI so that the world can better prepare for it,” Brockman said.

Persons: New York CNN — OpenAI, Scarlett Johansson, OpenAI, “ We’ve, ” OpenAI, “, Desi Lydic, ”, ” Lydic, Joaquin Phoenix, Everett, Sam Altman, Johansson, Jan Leike, Ilya Sutskever, Altman, Leike, Greg Brockman, ” Brockman Organizations: New, New York CNN, Daily, Warner Bros ., White, CNN Locations: New York, ChatGPT, OpenAI

OpenAI’s fear factorThe tech world’s collective eyebrows rose last week when Ilya Sutskever, the OpenAI co-founder who briefly led a rebellion against Sam Altman, resigned as chief scientist. “Safety culture and processes have taken a backseat to shiny products,” Jan Leike, who resigned from OpenAI last week, wrote on the social network X. Along with Sutskever, Leike oversaw the company’s so-called superalignment team, which was tasked with making sure products didn’t become a threat to humanity. Sutskever said in his departing note that he was confident OpenAI would build artificial general intelligence — A.I. Leike spoke for many safety-first OpenAI employees, according to Vox.

Persons: Ilya Sutskever, Sam Altman, hadn’t, ” Jan Leike, Sutskever, Leike, —, Vox, Daniel Kokotajlo, Altman Organizations: OpenAI, C.E.O

☆ AI 'godfather' Geoffrey Hinton says he's 'very worried' about AI taking jobs and has advised the British government to adopt a universal basic income
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Read previewSome say AI will be a great equalizer. And he believes a universal basic income might be the solution. "I advised them that universal basic income was a good idea." AdvertisementOpenAI CEO Sam Altman — who's been racing to develop artificial general intelligence — is running his own experiment around a universal basic income, the results of which he expects to release soon. He also recently floated the idea of a "universal basic compute."

Persons: —, Geoffrey Hinton, It's, Hinton, Sam Altman — who's, Altman Organizations: Service, BBC, Business Locations: Downing, South Africa, Kenya, India, United States

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