OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing

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OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing


The tone of congressional hearings involving tech business executives in recent times can greatest be described as antagonistic. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and different tech luminaries have all been dressed down on Capitol Hill by lawmakers upset with their firms.

But on Tuesday, Sam Altman, the chief government of the San Francisco start-up OpenAI, testified earlier than members of a Senate subcommittee listening to and largely agreed with them on the necessity to regulate the more and more highly effective A.I. expertise being created inside his firm and others like Google and Microsoft.

The boyish-looking Mr. Altman traded in his traditional pullover sweater and denims for a blue swimsuit and tie as he supplied a unfastened framework to handle what occurs subsequent with the fast-developing programs that some imagine might essentially change the financial system.

In his first testimony earlier than Congress, Mr. Altman implored lawmakers to manage synthetic intelligence as members of the committee displayed an understanding of the expertise, underscoring the deep unease felt by technologists and authorities over A.I.’s potential harms.

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that,” he mentioned. “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”

Mr. Altman made his public debut on Capitol Hill as curiosity in A.I. has exploded. Tech giants have poured billions of {dollars} and energy into what they are saying is a transformative expertise, even amid rising considerations about A.I.’s function in spreading misinformation, killing jobs and sooner or later matching human intelligence.

That has thrust the expertise into the highlight in Washington. President Biden this month mentioned at a gathering with a bunch of chief executives of A.I. firms that “what you’re doing has enormous potential and enormous danger.” Top leaders in Congress have additionally promised A.I. laws.

The look of Mr. Altman, a 38-year-old Stanford University dropout and tech entrepreneur, was his christening because the main determine in A.I. He was joined on the listening to by an government from IBM and a well known professor and frequent critic of A.I. expertise,

Mr. Altman mentioned his firm’s expertise could destroy some jobs but additionally create new ones, and that it is going to be essential for “government to figure out how we want to mitigate that.” He proposed the creation of an company that points licenses for the creation of large-scale A.I. fashions, security laws and exams that A.I. fashions should move earlier than being launched to the general public.

“We believe that the benefits of the tools we have deployed so far vastly outweigh the risks, but ensuring their safety is vital to our work,” Mr. Altman mentioned.

But after almost two hours of questioning in Tuesday’s listening to, it was unclear how lawmakers would reply to the decision to manage A.I. Lawmakers have been usually pleasant towards Mr. Altman, thanking him for his non-public conferences with them and for agreeing to look within the listening to. They approached him as an educator.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Senate panel, mentioned the listening to was the primary in collection to be taught extra in regards to the potential advantages and harms of A.I. to ultimately “write the rules” for it. He additionally acknowledged Congress’s failure to maintain up with the introduction of latest applied sciences previously.

“Our aim is to demystify and maintain accountable these new applied sciences to keep away from among the errors of the previous,” Mr. Blumenthal mentioned. “Congress failed to meet the moment on social media.”

This is a growing story. Check again for updates.

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