OpenAI CEO testifies before US Congress, calls regulation of artificial intelligence ‘critical’

The chief executive of OpenAI, the startup which created ChatGPT, Sam Altman, addressed a panel of United States lawmakers, on Tuesday (May 16), and said that regulation of the “increasingly powerful models” of artificial intelligence is “critical” to mitigate the risks the technology poses. Altman also spoke about how the use of AI to interfere with election integrity is a “significant area of concern”.

Altman’s warnings and concerns over AI

“OpenAI was founded on the belief that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve nearly every aspect of our lives, but also that it creates serious risks,” said Altman while addressing a Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing.

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This comes as many companies across the board from companies large and small have raced to bring increasingly sophisticated models of AI to market, which has raised concerns among critics and industry experts who have warned about how the technology can exacerbate societal harms including factors like misinformation and prejudice.

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While expressing concerns Altman also spoke about how AI is also beneficial to society and said that in time, generative AI developed by OpenAI will “address some of humanity’s biggest challenges, like climate change and curing cancer.”

However, given the risks of the technology, “we think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,” said the CEO of OpenAI.

What did the Senators say?

Notably, the session opened with Subcommittee Chairman Senator Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, playing a recording of a rather convincing AI version of himself reading out remarks crafted by ChatGPT. Blumenthal chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.

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“What if I had asked it, and what if it had provided, an endorsement of Ukraine surrendering or (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s leadership?” said Blumenthal. He also spoke about how companies developing AI should test their systems and disclose known risks before releasing them to the general public.

AI technology is now more than “just research experiments. They are no longer fantasies of science fiction, they are real and present,” said the subcommittee chairman.

US Senator Cory Booker, one of many lawmakers who is a part of the committee which is questioning how best to regulate AI, noted there is no way to “put this genie in the bottle” as the use of AI is exploding globally.

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Meanwhile, Republican senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri called AI “transformative in ways we can’t even imagine,” adding that it has implications for Americans’ elections, jobs, and security. He added, “This hearing marks a critical first step towards understanding what Congress should do.”

What does he propose?

Altman has called for “rules, guidelines, on what’s expected in terms of disclosure from a company providing a model,” in the context of elections and AI. Furthermore, he also suggested that the US should consider licensing and testing requirements for the development of AI models.

He went on to propose the formation of a regulation agency which would license the most powerful AI systems, in the US or globally, which would have the authority to “take that license away and ensure compliance with safety standards.” He added, “I think the US should lead here and do things first, but to be effective we do need something global.”

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Altman also said that companies should have the right to say if they do not want their data to be used for AI training while material on the public web would be fair game. He was also asked his opinion on which AI should be subject to licensing, and said a model that can persuade or manipulate a person’s belief would certainly be an example of a “great threshold”.

On the other hand, Christina Montgomery from International Business Machines Corp (IBM) who was also present for the hearing called for a “precision regulation” approach as opposed to an AI-focused regulator. This would mean “establishing rules to govern the deployment of AI in specific use-cases, not regulating the technology itself,” as quoted by The Associated Press.

(With inputs from agencies)

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