It will be necessary to "limit the risks" of artificial intelligence (AI). And to achieve this, the creator of the ChatGPT interface believes Tuesday that the intervention of governments is "crucial". "It is essential that the most powerful AI is developed with democratic values," said Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI on Tuesday.

The young entrepreneur who was speaking before a US congressional committee added: "Which means that the leadership of the United States is decisive." ChatGPT's launch in November sparked immense public and business interest in so-called generative artificial intelligence, i.e. one capable of creating content – text, images, sounds or video – after being trained on huge databases.

AIs are no longer "science fiction fantasies"

"If you were listening from home, you probably thought it was my voice and my words, when it wasn't my voice or my words," said Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. He had just made his opening remarks about the dangers of AI, written with ChatGPT and read by software trained on his real voice.

AI technologies "are no longer science fiction fantasies, they are real and present," he added. The elected officials debated with the boss of OpenAI and two other experts the need to regulate computer systems that could "literally destroy our lives", in the words of Senator Lindsey Graham.

'Serious risks'

"Artificial intelligence has the potential to improve just about every aspect of our lives," Altman said, hoping that eventually generative AI will enable humanity to solve "its most important challenges," such as global warming and cancer.

"But it also creates serious risks," he acknowledged. "One of my biggest fears is that we, this industry, this technology, will cause significant damage to society," he said. "If this technology goes in the wrong direction, it can go quite far. (...) And we want to work with the government to prevent that from happening. »

"Maximizing safety"

Sam Altman has regularly expressed support for the establishment of a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, preferably at the international level. "I know it seems naïve to propose something like this, it seems very difficult" to achieve, but "there are precedents," he said, referring to the example of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Altman said that while OpenAI LP, the entity that developed ChatGPT, is a private company, it is controlled by a non-profit organization, which "requires us to work towards the wide distribution of AI benefits and maximize the security of AI-based systems," he added.

A new federal agency?

He proposed the creation of a new federal agency, responsible for granting permissions to organizations that develop AI systems of a certain level, and which "could withdraw them if they do not comply with security standards."

There has been some enthusiasm for creating a federal agency, but it would need to be adequately resourced, Blumenthal said. "And I'm not just talking about dollars, I'm talking about scientific expertise," he said. Altman noted, however, the risks of too much regulation: "If U.S. industry slows down, China or someone else can move faster." He also insisted that possible measures should not stifle independent research, and instead focus on dominant companies like his own.

  • Tech
  • OpenAI
  • ChatGPT
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)