OpenAI CEO Concerned About AI Interference in 2024 Elections

OpenAI's CEO has some concerns to share about AI.

Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, recently testified to the Senate that the use of AI to interfere with election integrity is a "significant area of concern" for the government to look into for the upcoming 2024 elections.

OpenAI is the company that made many popular AI tools, such as image generator and editor DALL-E 2 and chatbot ChatGPT.

Sam Altman AI Concerns Details

Altman mentioned in his testimony that he is concerned over the potential impact of AI on democracy and how people could use AI to send targeted misinformation during the elections, per the BBC.

"I think we also need rules, guidelines, on what's expected in terms of disclosure from a company providing a model," Altman added, per Interesting Engineering. "I am nervous about it."

While it was Altman's first time testifying in front of the Senate, he didn't hold back on giving recommendations on how to better regulate AI models and the businesses that create them. For instance, Altman recommended that the US government can consider establishing a new agency that could regulate the AI industry through a combination of licensing and testing requirements for the development and release of AI models above a threshold of capabilities.

He also suggested that firms like OpenAI should undergo independent auditing to keep them in line with government expectations.

Christina Montgomery, IBM's chief privacy and trust officer, agrees with Altman but not his recommendations. According to an Ars Technica report, Montgomery said that IBM urges Congress to adopt a "precision regulation approach" to AI and establish rules to govern the deployment of AI in specific use cases, not regulating the technology itself.

Montgomery also added that Congress should state the risks of AI clearly and impose rules that fit the risks they pose, with the strongest rules being applied to use cases with the greatest risk to people and society.

Altman's concerns revealed bi-partisan support in Congress to regulate AI. Republican Senator Josh Hawley said that AI could be revolutionary but compared it to the atomic bomb due to its potential impact.

Meanwhile, Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal said that an AI-dominated future is not the future people want and that the government now has a choice to leave AI models unregulated.

The Formation Of An AI Law?

Altman's concerns could lead to the regulation of AI models, though the ability of a government agency to keep up with the rapidly changing technology is still unclear.

Regardless, forming an agency to regulate AI in the US or a law acting in the same capacity would put the US on equal footing with the EU.

You may recall that the EU is currently working on a draft of a law regualting AI technology through new copyright rules for companies using generative AI tools.

Some of the proposals parliament members made is the classification of AI tools according to their perceived risk level to areas of concern, which include biometric surveillance and spreading misinformation or discriminatory language: from minimal to limited, high, and unacceptable.