OpenAI CEO says possible to get regulation wrong, but should not fear it


FILE PHOTO Sam Altman CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI attends an open dialogue with students at Keio University in Tokyo Japan June 12 2023. REUTERSIssei Katofile photo

FILE PHOTO: Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, attends an open dialogue with students at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan June 12, 2023. REUTERS/Issei Kato/file photo

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI said on Monday that it was possible to get regulation wrong but it is important and should not be feared, amid global concerns about rapid advances in artificial intelligence, or AI.

Many countries are planning AI regulation, and Britain is hosting a global AI safety summit in November, focusing on understanding the risks posed by the frontier technology and how national and international frameworks could be supported.

Sam Altman, CEO and the public face of the startup OpenAI, backed by Microsoft Corp, said during a visit to Taipei that although he was not that worried about government over-regulation, it could happen.

"I also worry about under-regulation. People in our industry bash regulation a lot. We've been calling for regulation, but only of the most powerful systems," he said.

"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," added Altman, speaking at an AI event hosted by the charitable foundation of Terry Gou, the founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn.

Altman said that in the tech industry there is a "reflexive anti-regulation thing".

"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."

Gou, currently running as an independent candidate to be Taiwan's next president, sat in the audience, but did not speak at the forum.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, editing by Ed Osmond)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Next In Tech News

PPPDAD0012
Musk's xAI seeks $113 billion valuation in $300 million share sale, FT reports
PPPDAD005
'Forest Blizzard' vs 'Fancy Bear' - cyber companies hope to untangle weird hacker nicknames
PPPKC001
Apple challenges 'unreasonable' EU order to open up to rivals
FW1
Google to spend $500 million revamping compliance in shareholder settlement
FW1
Astronomers fear impact of Musk's Starlink on South Africa mega-telescope observations
PPP  NYK512
Applied Digital and CoreWeave ink 15-year lease worth $7 billion
GGGFRM01
Meta aims to fully automate advertising with AI by 2026, WSJ reports
FW1
Stablecoin issuer Circle targets $7.2 billion valuation in upsized US IPO
PPPDAD003
Digital banking startup Chime targets $11.2 billion valuation in US IPO
FW1
Microsoft to invest $400 million in Switzerland on AI, cloud computing

Others Also Read