United States: Mr. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which developed the innovative AI chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E 2, has stated that “regulation of AI is essential,” as he testified in his first appearance in front of the US Congress.

Speaking to the Senate judiciary committee, Mr. Altman remarked that he supported regulatory guardrails for the technology that would enable the benefits of artificial intelligence while minimising the harms.

“We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigating the risks of increasingly powerful models,” Mr. Altman stated.

Altman proposed that the US government consider licencing and testing requirements for AI models, including safety standards and independent auditing. The CEO further argued that existing frameworks like Section 230, which releases platforms from liability for the content their users post, would not be the right way to regulate the system.

“For a very new technology, we need a new framework,” Mr. Altman said.

Both Mr. Altman and Mr. Gary Marcus, an emeritus professor of psychology and neural science at New York University who also testified at the hearing, called for a new regulatory agency for the technology. Mr. Marcus argued that AI is complicated and moving fast, making “an agency whose full-time job” is to regulate it crucial.

Mr. Altman told legislators he was worried about the potential impact on democracy and how AI could be used to send targeted misinformation during elections.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley stated that the technology could be revolutionary but also compared the new technology to the invention of the “atomic bomb”.

Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal observed that an AI-dominated future “is not necessarily the future that we want”.

“We need to maximise the good over the bad. Congress has a choice now. We had the same choice when it came to social media. We failed to seize that moment,” Mr. Blumenthal warned.

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