The CEO of OpenAI, the creators of the viral chatbot ChatGPTtestified before the US Congress about his “worst fears” about emerging technology and the need for regulation.
Altman told a Senate panel Tuesday that the use of artificial intelligence to interfere with election integrity is a “significant area of concern.”
“I’m nervous about it,” the CEO said of the dangers posed by artificial intelligence, including his company’s chatbot.
As the 2024 US election approaches, AI has come to the attention of lawmakers as a potential source of misinformation.
One of the legislators even demonstrated the potential dangers of the technology by using an AI-generated speech that convincingly mimicked it in the audience.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, who also chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s privacy, technology and law subcommittee, asked ChatGPT how it would open the hearing and used voice-cloning technology to recite the AI-written speech. The result was ‘impressive’, he admitted.
‘There is no way to put this genie in the bottle. Globally, this is exploding,” said Sen. Cory Booker, one of many lawmakers with questions about how best to regulate AI.
‘In the electoral context, for example, I saw a photo of former President Trump being arrested by the NYPD that went viral,‘ Senator Mazie Hirono said, pressing Altman on whether she would find the fake image harmful.
Altman responded that creators need to make it clear when an image is generated rather than a fact.
Speaking before Congress for the first time, Altman suggested that, in general, the US should consider licensing and testing requirements for the development of AI models.
Altman added that companies should have the right to say they don’t want their data used for AI training, which is an idea US lawmakers are discussing. However, he cautioned that material on the public web would be fair game.
The CEO of the Microsoft-backed company also said he would “never say” to the idea of advertising, but preferred a subscription-based model.
Ultimately, Altman called for global cooperation on AI, saying there is an “urgent” need for regulation.
The panel also took issue with Christina Montgomery, director of privacy and trust at tech giant IBM, who urged Congress to focus regulation on areas with the potential to cause the greatest social harm.
The White House has convened top tech chief executives, including Altman, to address the impending influence of AI. While lawmakers seek the best way to promote the benefits of technology and national security while limiting its misuse, concrete rules are still lacking.
In March, Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts He called for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, to allow policymakers to catch up.
The open letter, signed by industry leaders, called AI systems a “profound risk to society and humanity.”
However, Altman and the other witnesses did not believe that pausing technological advances for six months would help the situation.
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