The CEO of the company that made ChatGPT has said he is concerned about the “under-regulation” of artificial intelligence (AI).
Sam Altman, CEO of the startup OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, said: “People in our industry bash regulation a lot. We’ve been calling for regulation, but only of the most powerful systems.
“Models that are like 10,000 times the power of GPT4, models that are like as smart as human civilization, whatever, those probably deserve some regulation.”
Speaking at an AI event in Taiwan hosted by the charitable foundation of Terry Gou, the founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, Mr Altman said in the tech industry there is a “reflexive anti-regulation thing”.
He said, although he was not too worried about government over-regulation, it could happen.
“Regulation has been not a pure good, but it’s been good in a lot of ways. I don’t want to have to make an opinion about
every time I step on an airplane how safe it’s going to be, but I trust that they’re pretty safe and I think regulation has been a positive good there,” he said.
“It is possible to get regulation wrong, but I don’t think we sit around and fear it. In fact, we think some version of it is important.”
It comes as many countries plan for the regulation of AI, with the UK hosting a global AI safety summit at Britain’s Second World War codebreaking base, Bletchley Park, in November.
Greg Clark, chair of the science and technology committee and a Conservative MP, warned the government may need to show “greater urgency” to ensure potential legislation doesn’t quickly become outdated as powers such as the US, China and the EU consider their own rules around AI.
The conference will focus on understanding the risks posed by the nascent technology and how to support national and international frameworks to regulate it.
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It comes after the US Pentagon’s computer intelligence chief said the world is “nowhere close” to AI becoming an existential threat.
Dr Craig Martell said recent headlines around generative models such as ChatGPT have misled people about their power.
“It’s not a singular technology where if we have AI, we’re going to be successful and if the other guys have AI, we’re going to be in danger,” he said.
“It’s neither a panacea, nor Pandora’s box.”
