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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified before a bipartisan U.S. Senate panel today, where he agreed with calls for a regulatory agency for AI. Unlike Mark Zuckerberg’s grilling in the late 2010s, Altman was greeted with praise and even called a “unicorn” by Senator Cory Booker.
Altman and Christina Montgomery, chief privacy and trust officer at IBM, both repeatedly agreed with the senators on the need for AI regulation. Altman called for a new agency, safety standards, and independent audits.
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Today, in a series of Senate hearings on artificial intelligence, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, a research lab backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, stated his support for introducing a regulatory agency that would help craft responsible deployment of AI technology.
In his testimony, Altman noted the potential benefits of AI, particularly for automating certain tasks, but he also outlined the very real risks that could accompany it. With the rapid pace of AI innovation, it is important that the deployment of new technology is done responsibly. According to Altman, this is not an easy task and requires a well-thought-out plan to ensure the AI is used in a manner that is beneficial to society.
“We need to make sure AI is deployed and used responsibly, not just in theory but in practice,” Altman said. “To do this, we need an agency with the expertise and capacity to keep up with the ever-accelerating pace of AI innovation, and to ensure no one’s civil liberty is violated in pursuit of AI progress.”
This could also include, according to Altman, establishing ethical guardrails for using the technology. This would include having agencies and companies evaluate the impact of AI on people’s lives and a review process for projects that want to use the technology.
Altman believes that regulations can help companies and individuals considering deploying AI in the U.S. “Informed, effective regulation can enable—not restrict—innovation in industries where success demands the courageous adoption of AI,” he said. “That could include, areas such as autonomous vehicle operation, job-seeking, home automation, health IoT and many others.”
Altman’s comments echo the sentiment of other technology, industry, and public-sector leaders who have called for greater regulation of AI technology. With such a large number of working AI technologies on the market, it is clear that some form of regulation must be put in place in order to ensure citizens are adequately protected from potential harm.
