OpenAI calls for regulation at first congressional hearing on artificial intelligence
Leon Neal
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified before Congress on Tuesday, emphasizing the need to create guardrails for the emerging industry of artificial intelligence.
"We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models," he declared. "As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious that it could change the way we live. We are too, but we believe that we can and must work together to manage the potential downsides, so that we can all enjoy the tremendous upsides."
Lawmakers didn't arrive at any specific proposals, but several ideas were brought up such as new frameworks for regulation, compliance with safety standards, or a combination of licensing and testing requirements for AI models above a certain threshold of capabilities.
"Congress failed to meet the moment on social media," commented Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. "Now we have the obligation to do it on AI before the threats and the risks become real."
During the session on Capitol Hill, AI drama also broke into the open as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella replied to an allegation by Elon Musk that the tech giant "has a very strong say, if not directly controls, OpenAI at this point."
Nadella responded that "OpenAI is very grounded in their mission of being controlled by a nonprofit board," adding while "we have a noncontrolling interest in the OpenAI... we have a great commercial partnership in it" after pouring billions of dollars into ChatGPT maker.
More on artificial intelligence

Zoom unveils investment in Anthropic to boost AI capabilities
What happened during the White House meeting on artificial intelligence?