‘My worst fears are…’: Key moments from ChatGPT creator Sam Altman’s testimony to Congress

Here are the key moments:

1. 01

   Senator opened hearing with computer-generated voice

   Blumenthal, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, opened a hearing that featured OpenAI CEO Sam Altman created by artificial intelligence. Blumenthal played an audio clip with “introductory remarks”  from a computer-generated voice that sounded just like him. He revealed that the audio was made by a voice cloning software, with words written by ChatGPT, the AI chatbot created by Sam Alkman’s company. 

   "That voice was not mine. The words were not mine," Blumenthal said. 

   "I asked ChatGPT, ‘why did you pick those themes and that content?’" he said. "And it answered, and I'm quoting, ‘Blumenthal has a strong record in advocating for consumer protection and civil rights. He has been vocal about issues such as data privacy and the potential for discrimination in algorithmic decision making. Therefore, the statement emphasizes these aspects.’"  Blumenthal jokingly thanked Altman for the "endorsement," but then seriously warned about the dangers of Generative AI technology. 

2. 02

   ‘Congress failed to meet the moment on social media’

   Blumenthal acknowledged how Congress missed the opportunity on regulating social media at its inception.  The senator affirmed that they don’t want to repeat the mistakes that happened in the past which led to issues like misinformation and data privacy on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. 

   “Congress failed to meet the moment on social media,” Blumenthal said. “Now we have the obligation to do it on AI before the threats and the risks become real.”

3. 03

   An atom bomb or printing press?

   Lawmakers threw some serious questions at Altman, with Ranking member Josh Hawley asked if OpenAI’s ChatGPT which is based on large-language models (LLMs) and similar Generative AI technologies were similar to the printing press or the atom bomb. 

   “We could be looking at one of the most important technological innovations in human history,” Hawley said. “It’s really like the invention of the internet at scale, at least.”

   OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he believes “OpenAI was founded on the belief that AI has the potential to improve nearly every aspect of our lives…We think this can be a printing-press moment.” But he did acknowledge the threat of AI. “My worst fears are that [the AI industry] will cause significant harm to the world,” he said. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.” 

4. 04

   Will AI take our jobs?

   During the hearing, the senators touched upon how the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) could impact the workplace. IBM Chief Privacy & Trust Officer Christina Montgomery who joined Altman in testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time acknowledged the risks of AI on workers in various industries. “Some jobs will transition away,” she said. Altman, however, offered a different take. Altman said GPT-4, OpenAI’s newest large-language AI model and other AI models do excel at completing tasks but are not capable at completing a full job yet. 

   “GPT-4 will, I think, entirely automate away some jobs,” Altman said. “And it will create new ones that we believe will be much better.”

   “I think it’s important to understand and think about GPT4 as a tool, not a creature,” he added, referencing OpenAI's latest generative AI model. Such models, he said, were “good at doing tasks, not jobs” and would therefore ease off some pressure but don’t expect they replace workers from their jobs. 

5. 05

   Altman to Congress: Please regulate us

   Altman, like many of his peers in the Big Tech have been calling, supported the idea of regulating the AI that would maximise the benefits of the transformative technology while minimising the harms. “We think the regulatory intervention by the governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models,” Altman said. He suggested the US government might consider licensing and testing requirements of development and release of AI models. Altman also said companies like OpenAI should be independently audited. “For a very new technology we need a new framework,” Altman said.