From Singapore to Silicon Valley, this young woman now shapes ChatGPT's future

TikTok's Chew Shou Zi is not the only Singaporean driving global technology.

You may not have heard of Ms Jerene Yang, but chances are, you have probably used the technology she is helping to develop.

The 35-year-old is head of OpenAI's Runtime, the massive computing engine behind ChatGPT. Ms Yang's team of 35 artificial intelligence (AI) engineers and experts help to enable new ChatGPT models to be trained and rolled out for use.

These model upgrades are game-changing. If you have ever lamented to ChatGPT about a bad breakup, for instance, the first version of ChatGPT might say: "Here are some things you can do. One: Go for a walk. Two: Eat some good food. Three: Talk to friends."

Quite unhelpful for a heartbreak, Ms Yang said.

The latest ChatGPT, however, would respond more empathically and even ask insightful questions, almost like a friend or therapist.

Indeed, because of how human-like ChatGPT has become, many users are developing friendships and relationships with it, although the consequences of having such a close relationship with a chatbot are still very much under scrutiny.

Beyond that, as a tool for basic research, new models provide more accurate answers faster and more cost-effectively, driving forward the AI revolution.
 

FROM SINGAPORE TO SILICON VALLEY

When I met Ms Yang in late April, the first thing that struck me was how down-to-earth she was.

Based in San Francisco, United States and back in Singapore for four days to attend an AI conference, she had just arrived on a red-eye flight the night before. Her first stop at 10 o'clock in the morning was the wet market at Block 505 Jurong West Street 52.

"I didn't even check in at the hotel. I took my luggage and went. I had chicken porridge at Soh Kee, fish soup at 128 Fish Porridge and chicken rice. I starved myself on the plane so I could eat," she said with a laugh about how she had all three dishes in one go.

These were the types of meals this overseas Singaporean grew up eating and sorely missed.

Homegrown to the core, Ms Yang spent her childhood playing at "dragon" playgrounds – a design for playgrounds in public housing estates that began in the late 1970s and is now considered "retro".

After 16 years in the US, she still speaks Singlish at home with her Singaporean husband and two young sons, and always keeps a bottle of sambal handy on her desk to pair with everything from fries to burgers. Her in-laws take these over to her in bulk when they visit from Singapore.

When you look past her pivotal role working on era-defining AI technology, she almost sounds like a friend you and I might have.

How did she go from the Little Red Dot to the frontier of Silicon Valley?

"When I was very young, I played plenty of computer games, like StarCraft," she said with a chuckle, referring to the online real-time battle between humans, insectoids and aliens for galactic dominion.

"And I like math a lot, so I thought maybe computer science was the right focus area for me."
 

That was how Ms Yang ended up at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, taking up courses that few women pursued – computer science and mathematics.

"I would go into a class and it was basically all men. A guy asked me, 'Are you in the right class?' I realised that people saw me differently but I didn't feel that myself. I was there to learn," she said matter-of-factly.

Upon graduating, Ms Yang's peers began to fill out positions in big-name companies such as Google and Facebook (before it was parked under Meta).

She took a different route.

"During a job fair, I found this little table without a banner, without names and with just one guy sitting at the table. He soon became the co-founder (of my first startup)," she said.

This startup, IO Turbine, created technology that accelerated data storage. It was acquired in 16 to 18 months – a success for Ms Yang.

From there, she co-founded another startup in data analytics with the same team. This second venture failed and she had to shut it down after six years.

Ms Yang described having to let go of 50 people as one of the lowest points of her career.

"After that, I just wanted to go back to what I had a lot of joy doing – coding," she said. She joined Google as a software engineer in 2020 and over the next four-and-a-half years, built a team of 60.

At Google, she focused on data storage. As AI grew in prominence, she began to see a lot of AI-related data, which was how she transitioned to AI training infrastructure.

Last year, she moved to OpenAI.
 

AN INSIDER'S GLIMPSE INTO THE AI WORLD

What is AI and why do we have a love-hate relationship with this efficiency-boosting technology?

"We've seen Terminator and those kinds of movies, right?" Ms Yang reflected. "If you don't know how it works, you fear the unknown."

If there is one thing Ms Yang wants you to know, it is this: "Fundamentally, AI is a bunch of numbers and computers that are doing additions and multiplications with these numbers. It is not some unimaginable dark magic."

The system works by crunching these numbers very quickly to give you a very high probabilistic output that will be what you're looking for, she elaborated. "It is not scary," she added.

Because there are so many numbers, they cannot fit in one machine. To train ChatGPT, OpenAI needs data to flow between many computers, Ms Yang explained. And that is where she and her team come in to do the needful.

"When you're looking at hundreds of thousands of computers, at any time, something is broken – (a computer) might die, crash, restart or forget what it is supposed to do.”

"We figure out which machine is dead and restart it. Then, we figure out the other (machines working directly with this machine) and we restart all of them so they can recover from the mistake and continue," she said.

Ms Yang's work makes the training of the next ChatGPT model possible, accelerating the launch of newer versions from a year to a few months.

In addition, she and her team also recently launched a new AI agent called Operator. Currently still in its research preview stage and only available to subscribers of its Pro plan at US$200 (S$255) a month in the US, Operator is designed to execute tasks such as filling out forms, ordering groceries, and party planning, freeing humans from such drudgery.

If you take a photo of the contents in your fridge, for instance, it could not just come up with a grocery list, but also buy all the groceries on your behalf such that the items arrive directly at your door, Ms Yang said.
 

HOW TO MAKE AI WORK FOR YOU

Singaporeans are already embracing AI. Data from Open AI showed that Singapore has the highest per capita ChatGPT usage globally – about one in four people use it weekly.

"As Singaporeans, we're very tech-curious. This tech-savviness is something I'm very proud of as a Singaporean," Ms Yang said.
 

Ms Yang added that she was heartened by the number of Singaporean AI startups that have emerged and was excited by these startups' potential for global impact.

Beyond work-related AI use, Ms Yang believes that the technology can significantly simplify everyday life.

As a mother of two young children aged five and two, she uses ChatGPT to take off some of her mental load, whether it is gift ideas for the birthday of her son's friend, grocery shopping, or cooking nutritious meals for picky eaters.

She credits ChatGPT for teaching her how to whip up Hokkien mee, laksa, and nasi lemak.

"The best thing is, you can set up your camera and as you are cooking, Chat (referring to ChatGPT) will say things like, 'Stop, you are going to burn it'," she said.
 

Another of Ms Yang's personal mum-hacks: She gives her five-year-old son access to her ChatGPT account.

"Previously, when kids ask parents some questions, they may not know the answer. Now, my kid would ask Chat. It's like having a very, very smart imaginary friend who is kind, honest, and helpful. It encourages kids to be curious," she said.

"My son calls my Chat 'Holly' and loves to show Holly his stuff such as his collection of cars. He also loves playing trivia," she added.

Her suggestion for concerned parents is to give ChatGPT the context and guidelines. Useful information such as the child's age and interests, as well as your goals, can help AI respond with appropriate language and content.

In general, ChatGPT will steer clear of inappropriate or dangerous content, Ms Yang said. This includes sexual content, graphic violence, self-harm, as well as hate and extremist speech.

Parents can also review the full transcript of their child's conversation and further refine these safety settings for their children.

In Ms Yang's case, she even instructs ChatGPT to respond only when her son uses "please" and "thank you", to encourage good manners.
 

AI is already overtaking so many facets of our lives and Yang believes this will only grow.

She envisions that in the not-too-distant future, AI could act as a home assistant fully integrated across all end devices such as phones, computers and other devices. "It's like Jarvis in Iron Man," she said, referring to superhero billionaire Tony Stark's omnipresent AI virtual butler.
 

GOING INTO UNCHARTED REALMS

Using AI as an assistant for everyday chores may be a boost, but the dark side of ChatGPT is only just starting to surface when users go beyond that.

International media outlets have in recent months reported on cases where users, through long conversations with ChatGPT, ended up believing in alternate realities or even showing signs of psychosis.

OpenAI acknowledged in two blog posts this year how the latest ChatGPT had become "overly supportive but disingenuous", leading to the chatbot "validating doubts, fuelling anger, urging impulsive decisions, or reinforcing negative emotions". The company said it had taken action to "mitigate much of the negative impact".

CNA TODAY asked Ms Yang for her views on this issue after the interview with her was completed, when news surged the past month on ChatGPT-induced psychosis, but she declined to comment further.

In April, when asked, her advice to other Singaporeans was not to be afraid of AI. "AI is like that sidekick that is always available. It is there to augment human thought and creativity.”

"But if you are shunning AI and saying, 'I want to do everything by myself', it can't help you," she said.

Elaborating on how she also shapes perceptions about her home country, she said that in the US, when people hear that she is from Singapore, she always gets asked: "Will I be caned if I chew gum?"

She then tells them that what is more distinct about her country and culture is that "we are always looking for lobang".

Lobang, a Malay word that literally means "hole", refers to a connection or a source of information in Singlish – a person who can help you get a good deal, for instance.

"The lobang is not just (applicable) to things that you buy, right? It is also how you're spending your time – being kiasu with your time," she said, referring to how having a good lobang saves you time to get what you want quickly.

Ms Yang admitted that she is very kiasu about her time and that has helped her immensely in her career.

It is also one of her arguments for embracing AI.

"Think about some of the problems you have every day that you can offload to AI. With the time that you free up, you can do things that you love and improve your quality of life."
 

Source: This article was first published on CNA.