Body needed to oversee AI: Sam Altman
The CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said that the dangers that keep him awake at night regarding artificial intelligence are the “subtle societal misalignments” that could make the systems wreak havoc.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai via a video call, Sam Altman reiterated his call for a body like the International Atomic Energy Agency to be created to oversee AI that’s likely advancing faster than the world expects.
“There are some things in there that are easy to imagine where things go wrong. And I’m not that interested in the killer robots walking on the street direction of things going wrong,” Altman said.
“I’m much more interested in the subtle societal misalignments where we just have these systems out in society, and through no particular ill intention, things just go wrong.”
However, Altman stressed that the AI industry, like OpenAI, shouldn’t be in the driver’s seat when it comes to making regulations governing the industry.
“We’re still in the stage of a lot of discussion. So there’s everybody in the world is having a conference. Everyone’s got an idea, a policy paper, and that’s OK,” Altman said. “I think we’re still at a time where debate is needed and healthy, but at some point in the next few years, I think we have to move towards an action plan with real buy-in around the world.”
OpenAI, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup, is one of the leaders in the field. Microsoft has invested some $1 billion in OpenAI. The Associated Press has signed a deal with OpenAI for it to access its news archive. Meanwhile, The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of its stories without permission to train OpenAI’s chatbots.
OpenAI’s success has made Altman the public face for generative AI’s rapid commercialization — and the fears over what may come from the new technology.
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