OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s congressional testimony comes at a critical AI moment

Get your popcorn prepared: At 10 am EST, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman makes his first look testifying earlier than a U.S. Senate panel, at a session of the Senate Judiciary Committee subcommittee on privateness, expertise and the regulation known as “Oversight of AI: Rules for Artificial Intelligence.” Also testifying are longtime AI critic Gary Marcus and Christina Montgomery, chief privateness and belief officer at IBM. Watch it dwell right here.

The testimony comes at a critical AI moment, as lawmakers wrestle to know the newest AI expertise and grapple with learn how to regulate it. It will likely be robust for them to maintain tempo with the extent of AI growth that has develop into regular within the six months since ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, however there are a number of totally different approaches on the desk, together with proposals that focus regulation on the highest-risk use circumstances of generative AI and people who hone in on bias and discrimination.

A loud backdrop of AI criticism

Altman’s testimony additionally comes with an more and more loud backdrop of criticism from a number of stakeholders. Just yesterday, for instance, pc scientist and actress Justine Bateman tweeted a thread that went viral calling on Screen Actors Guild members to take heed to AI and the way it will have an effect on them — warning of a future crammed with AI-written scripts and digital scans of actors.

“AI has to be addressed now or never,” she wrote. “I believe this is the last time any labor action will be effective in our business. If we don’t make strong rules now, they simply won’t notice if we strike in three years, because at that point they won’t need us.”

AI regulation is ramping up

The Senate panel session additionally comes as discussions about AI regulation are entrance and middle world wide.

Last Thursday, a committee of lawmakers within the European Parliament permitted a draft of the long-awaited EU AI Act, shifting it nearer to turning into regulation. It affords a risk-based strategy to regulating AI and contains necessities for builders of foundational fashions reminiscent of ChatGPT — together with ensuring coaching knowledge doesn’t violate copyright regulation. But critics say its formidable effort makes an attempt to “boil the ocean” and is just too cautious.

Open-source AI is on everybody’s thoughts

Adding to the complicated internet of AI points is how open supply AI suits into the way forward for each Big Tech and AI regulation. With a wave of recent open-source LLMs, Big Tech firms are involved about their moats — final week a leaked Google memo from one among its engineers, titled “We have no moat,” claimed that the “uncomfortable truth” is that neither Google nor OpenAI is positioned to “win this arms race.” And based on The Information, even OpenAI is getting ready to launch its personal open supply mannequin to attempt to trip this wave.

But would AI regulation have a chilling impact on open supply AI? And if Big Tech responds by closing up entry to their fashions for concern of open supply competitors, what does that imply for the protection of state-of-the-art LLMs?

I’ve received my popcorn. Munch, munch.

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