Why it matters: Concerns are growing about powerful AI systems.
Mr. Altman appeared before Congress on May 16 to implore lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence. Congressional leaders shared their concerns about the threats AI could pose, including the spread of misinformation and privacy breaches.
“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go pretty bad. And we want to speak out about it,” Altman said in his testimony before members of a Senate subcommittee.
In March, more than 1,000 technology leaders and researchers, including Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, called for a moratorium on development of the most advanced AI systems, warning in an open letter that the tools posed “profound risks to the society and humanity.”
In their latest note, OpenAI leaders said that “it is conceivable that within the next 10 years, AI systems will surpass the skill level of experts in most domains and perform as much productive activity as one of today’s largest corporations.
Background: Tech giants are vying for dominance in a fast-growing market.
The latest AI tools could change the economics of the internet, turning today’s tech giants old and creating the next industry powerhouses.
Tech companies have spent billions of dollars on AI, amid growing concerns about its potential to match human reasoning and destroy jobs. Goldman Sachs recently estimated that AI could expose 300 million full-time jobs to automation.
BuzzFeed just introduced a chatbot that offers recipe recommendations.
What’s next: Congress is trying to keep up.
At last week’s hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Senate panel, acknowledged that Congress had not kept up with new technologies. He added that the hearing was the first in a series on the potential of AI and eventually “writing the rules” for it.
“Our goal is to demystify and hold these new technologies accountable to avoid some of the mistakes of the past,” he said.
But over the years, partisan bickering and intense lobbying by the tech industry have stalled dozens of bills aimed at strengthening privacy, speech and security rules.