Regulation of AI is 'essential': OpenAI CEO

The CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for creating artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E 2, said “regulation of AI is essential” on Tuesday as he testified in front of a Senate judiciary committee panel.

"We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models," Open AI CEO Sam Altman said at a hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and The Law.

"For example, the US government might consider a combination of licensing and testing requirements for developing and releasing AI models above a threshold of capabilities," he said.

Altman acknowledged that while it is an exciting time to work on AI, he understands that people are worried about the potential effects of the technology on their lives, and OpenAI shares those concerns.

He noted that OpenAI can partner with governments to ensure that the most powerful AI models adhere to a set of safety requirements, facilitate processes to develop and update safety measures, and examine opportunities for global coordination.

"I believe that we will be able to mitigate the risks in front of us and really capitalise on technology's potential to grow the US economy and the world's," Altman added.

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His remarks came amid the widespread popularity of ChatGPT, a chatbot tool developed by OpenAI, which has reignited competition in the field of AI and raised concerns about the potential risks of this technology.

Altman said his company believes AI has the potential to "improve nearly every aspect of our lives."

"We are working to build tools that one day can help us make new discoveries that address some of humanity's biggest challenges, like climate change, and curing cancer. Our current systems aren't yet capable of doing these things," he said.