Following the testimony in a Senate subcommittee of OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, Congressional lawmakers have expressed a range of apprehensions about the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher spoke of a “total techno-totalitarian control” that could be imposed by China if they are allowed to lead the AI race. With the introduction of new robotics, there are concerns over “jobs” that may be replaced by machines. In addition, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is worried about the use of AI for “one-on-one interactive disinformation”.
Another issue that has arisen is the potential for political bias in OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The Florida Republican raised this with Altman at her AI briefing, and he reportedly responded that the chatbot had no bias and was the same for both Republican and Democrat. Rep. Kat Cammack challenged the CEO to prove it, which she did byasking it to write a poem about Donald Trump – to which the GCPT replied that it couldn’t due to his status as a controversial figure.
Altman suggested to the subcommittee that Congress should regulate AI, an opinion shared by Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York. He believes that the federal government must be involved to ensure that the technology is beneficial to the American people. Despite this, other legislators such as Rep. Gallagher highlighted the risk of American investors investing in Chinese AI companies, emphasizing the responsibility worldwide.
OpenAI is an Artificial Intelligence research company established in San Francisco, initiated in December 2015 with $1 billion dollars in funding from Microsoft and theSam Altman companies. Its mission is to promote the responsible development and use of artificial general intelligence – in other words, using AI to increase human capacities. They research AI to create breakthroughs in many fields, with the ultimate goal of enabling powerful techniques to be used within a wide range of technologies, from healthcare to natural language processing. Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI and it a very successful businessperson in the technology and entrepreneurship fields. He co-founded the seed accelerator Y Combinator in 2014 and acts as a Managing Partner, a role he takes very seriously given his desire to promote science and technology ventures to its fullest.
