So, alignment does need to be taking seriously, you're right.

But keep in mind this is a report from OpenAI about OpenAI, who have a financial incentive to present this in a certain light. Take these things with a grain of salt.

This does not mean that models are now self-aware.

I agree, and to be clear, I do not think it is capable of human-like self-actualisation - yet. However we are clearly seeing many indications that, if not human-like self-actualisation, AI-like self-actualisation is emerging. We can even refrain from calling it self-actualisation. Let's just call it emergent actions. A confluence of trillions of parameters all creating an unintended outcome. The complexity of these models is already far beyond our ability to dissect them. As they increase in scope and scale at this pace, new "thinking" and actions will emerge outside of the researcher's intended scope.