Last week, in a podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed his support for international regulation of AI, echoing similar statements shared previously by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
What Happened: On Friday, while speaking at the All-In podcast, Altman spoke about the need for international regulation of AI to prevent potential global harm. He suggested that an international agency should oversee the most powerful AI systems and “ensure reasonable safety testing,” reported Business Insider.
However, he also warned against regulatory overreach. “I’d be super nervous about regulatory overreach here. I think we get this wrong by doing way too much or a little too much. I think we can get this wrong by doing not enough.”
He believes that such systems will exert a “negative impact way beyond the realm of one country” and advocates for their regulation by “an international agency looking at the most powerful systems and ensuring reasonable safety testing.”
“I think there will come a time in the not-so-distant future — like we’re not talking decades and decades from now — where frontier AI systems are capable of causing significant global harm,” he stated.
Altman drew a parallel between AI and airplanes, suggesting that AI should be regulated similarly to industries where significant loss of human life is a possibility.
“When like [a] significant loss of human life is a serious possibility, like airplanes, or any number of other examples where I think we’re happy to have some sort of testing framework,” he said. “I don’t think about an airplane when I get on it. I just assume it’s going to be safe.”
Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox.
In February earlier this year, Altman suggested the United Arab Emirates or UAE as a potential testing site for global AI regulations.
Why It Matters: Altman’s call for international AI regulation aligns with Musk’s advocacy for AI regulation, despite his public disagreements with OpenAI and his lawsuit against the maker of ChatGPT, alleging a breach of their original “founding agreement.”
Last year in April, Musk also drew parallels between airplanes and AI. His statement came in response to Yann LeCun, Meta Platforms Inc.’s chief AI scientist, who asked, “Why should AI engineers be more scared of AI than aircraft engineers were scared of flying?”
Replying to LeCun, Musk said that airplanes used to crash frequently until the establishment of the Federal Aviation Administration. He said the FAA ensured that commercial aircraft makers and airlines didn't compromise on safety.
“Now, flying on an airliner in America is super safe,” Musk said at the time.
Altman’s stance also resonates with Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet Inc., who previously said, “AI is too important not to regulate and too important not to regulate well.”
Altman’s call for international AI regulation comes at a time when the EU has already approved the Artificial Intelligence Act, and the U.S. is also taking steps to regulate AI.
Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
