Congress warns AI could reshape ‘human history’ as ChatGPT inventor Sam Altman testifies

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is speaking in front of Congress about the dangers of AI after his company’s ChatGPT exploded in popularity in just a few months.

Lawmakers are grilling the CEO, stressing that ChatGPT and other models can be a moment like the printing press or the atomic bomb.

Altman told senators that generative AI could be a ‘printing press moment’ but he is not blind to its fault, noting policymakers and industry leaders need to work together to ‘make it so.’

This is the first hearing of a series intended to write rules for AI, which lawmakers said should have been done with the birth of social media while admitting their failures in the area.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, who presided over the hearing, said Congress failed to seize the moment with social media, allowing predators to harm children – but that moment has not passed with AI. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is speaking in front of Congress about the dangers of AI after his company’s ChatGPT exploded in popularity in just a few months

San Francisco-based OpenAI rocketed to public attention after it released ChatGPT late last year. 

ChatGPT is a free chatbot tool that answers questions with convincingly human-like responses.

Senator Josh Hawley said: ‘A year ago we couldn’t have had this discussion because this tech had not yet burst to public. But [this hearing] shows just how rapidly [AI] is changing and transforming our world.’

Tuesday’s hearing aimed not to control AI, but to start a discussion on how to make ChatGPT and other models transparent, ensure risks are disclosed and establish scorecards.

Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, opened the hearing with a recorded speech that sounded like the senator but was actually a voice clone trained on Blumenthal’s floor speeches and reciting a speech written by ChatGPT after he asked the chatbot, ‘How I would open this hearing?’ 

The result was impressive, said Blumenthal, but he added, ‘What if I had asked it, and what if it had provided an endorsement of Ukraine surrendering or (Russian President) Vladimir Putin´s leadership?’

Blumenthal said AI companies should be required to test their systems and disclose known risks before releasing them.

San Francisco-based OpenAI rocketed to public attention after it released ChatGPT late last year. ChatGPT is a free chatbot tool that answers questions with convincingly human-like responses

Altman, who looked flushed and wide-eyed during the grilling over the future AI could create, admitted his ‘worst fears’ are causing ‘significant harm to the world’ using his technology.

‘If this technology goes wrong, it could go quite wrong, and we want to be vocal about that. We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening,’ he continued.