OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will make his Congressional debut before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee today—Tuesday at 10 am EST. He’s expected to roll out the charm offensive to try and convince lawmakers to pursue light-handed legislation that gives artificial intelligence like his company’s product ChatGPT a wide runway to rapidly advance. Altman’s rosy testimony expounding on the societal virtues of generative AI will likely clash with skeptical lawmakers and other expert witnesses, who are expected to demand strong new federal regulations to try and address discrimination and other unintended AI harms.
The hearing comes during a crucial inflection point for large language models like ChatGPT with lawmakers and regulators publicly struggling to stay a step ahead of the rapidly evolving tech. Google, Altman’s Open AI, Microsoft, Meta, and others are simultaneously in a dead sprint to determine who will emerge as the biggest winner in the new AI arms race.
You can watch a livestream of the healing here:
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
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Major tech executives over the years have learned it’s a fool’s errand to dig in their heels and vocally oppose any sign of regulation. Instead, the more common playbook, which Almtan is expected to follow, is to advocate in favor of their preferred type of legislation. On Tuesday, according to The Financial Times, Altman will tell lawmakers “regulation of AI is essential” but that such regulation should balance safety against ensuring wide access of the tech to the general public. ChatGPT, which debuted in November, has already amassed 100 million users, according to OpenAI.
Altman is expected to recommend a set of new AI safety requirements which could include rules around internal and external testing of products before they are released. Those safety requirements, however, will need to be flexible enough to adapt to potentially unforeseen new advances in the tech, he will say. Altman is expected to oppose calls from Elon Musk and hundreds of other AI researchers and executives who’ve called for a six-month pause on the development advanced generative AI tools.
Other expert witnesses, like former New York University professor Gary Marcus, are expected to take a more measured stance toward the technology and warn of a recent rise in potentially dangerous “AI hype.” Marcus and Altman will be joined by IBM Chef Privacy and Trust Officer Christina Montgomery.
As with any tech hearing, some lawmakers are likely to appear underprepared and out of touch with the technology in question. At the same time, there’s good reason to think the wide experimentation with ChatGPT-style chatbots and the recent surge in public concern over AI harms has motivated at least some of the senators in attendance to research the issues and come out swinging. Lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum are trying to avoid a repeat of earlier hearings on cryptocurrency and social media where they failed to press executives on the impact of their technologies and appeared incapable of drafting meaningful legal safeguards.
Around half a dozen new bills or legislative actions on AI have emerged in recent weeks led by Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and California Rep. Ted Lieu. On the regulatory side, the Federal Trade Commission has released several statements clarifying its intent to use existing laws to punish AI companies up to no good. Chairwoman Lina Khan further signaled her aggressive approach toward AI earlier this month with an editorial in the New York Times succinctly titled “We Must Regulate A.I.”
On the executive side, the White House has so far tried to straddle a middle ground, simultaneously investing in new AI research and speaking amicably with major tech executives about AI while still expressing concerns over areas of potential abuse.
Source: Gizmodo