Printing press or atom bomb?

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, ah come on please can you not?

That was the essential message from lawmakers yesterday during OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy and technology.

“Congress failed to meet the moment on social media,” Chair Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) said in his opening written remarks. How can we ensure, he may have continued, channeling the legendary UK band The Who, that we don’t get fooled again?

Altman’s answer was simple – regulate, regulate, regulate. And that includes creating a legal framework that isn’t Section 230, the law that essentially indemnifies social media platforms from being held liable for the content on their platforms.

Here’s Altman’s three-point plan for what regulation might look like:

1. Establish a dedicated government agency responsible for licensing large AI models, and grant it the authority to revoke licenses for non-compliance with government standards.
2. Develop and enforce safety standards, including assessments of potential risks and dangerous capabilities (example: testing whether models can self-replicate or go rogue and start acting autonomously without authorization).
3. Mandate independent audits conducted by external experts.

🤖 Looking ahead... Expect more regulation-focused AI conversations – because much like gossip at a family reunion, the technology is spreading fast. OpenAI’s ChatGPT crossed the 100 million user mark just two months after launching late last year. Meanwhile, Google, which has over 1 billion people using its services, recently announced plans to integrate its AI chatbot, Bard, into its suite of apps, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and more.