OpenAI said it had begun training its next-generation artificial intelligence software, even as the start-up backtracked on earlier claims that it wants to build “superintelligent” systems that are smarter than humans.

The San Francisco-based company said on Tuesday that it had started producing a new AI system “to bring us to the next level of capabilities” and that its development would be overseen by a new safety and security committee.

But while OpenAI is racing ahead with AI development, a senior OpenAI executive seemed to backtrack on previous comments by its chief executive Sam Altman that it was ultimately aiming to build a “superintelligence” far more advanced than humans.