Artificial intelligence: the boss of OpenAI (ChatGPT) wants regulation

Government intervention to regulate the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI) will be “crucial” to limit the risks presented by this technology, pleaded Sam Altman, boss of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, before a US parliamentary committee.

Necessary regulation for AI

“It is essential that the most powerful AI is developed with democratic values”, estimated Sam Altman. According to him, this “means that the leadership of the United States is decisive”.

The launch of ChatGPT in November has multiplied the interest of the public, but also of companies, for so-called generative artificial intelligence, that is to say capable of creating content, text, images, sounds or video, after being trained on huge databases. Generative AI is unleashing passions and many are worried about its potential impact on a range of professions, with possible massive job cuts, but more broadly on society as a whole.

“Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve just about every aspect of our lives, but it also creates serious risks”acknowledged Sam Altman, during his hearing by the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. “One of my biggest fears is that we, this industry, this technology, are causing significant harm to society”did he declare. “If this technology goes the wrong way, it can go quite far (…) and we want to work with the government to prevent that from happening”.

He reminded that while OpenAI is a private company, it is controlled by a non-profit organization, “which requires working towards the wide distribution of the benefits of AI and maximizing the security of AI-based systems”.

Sam Altman has regularly expressed his support for the establishment of a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, preferably at the international level. “I know it sounds naive to come up with something like this, it seems very difficult” to do, but “there are precedents”he explained, citing the example of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).