OpenAI CEO Feels ‘Quite Optimistic’ on AI Interest, Regulation

There is hope for global AI regulation and the interest in it.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently stated that he feels "quite optimistic" about worldwide coordination regarding AI regulation and cultivating interest in AI.

Altman previously urged Congress to adopt a "precision regulation approach" to AI and establish rules to govern the deployment of AI in specific use cases after airing out his concerns about the interference of AI in the upcoming 2024 elections.

Sam Altman Global Tour Contemplations

Altman told students from Tokyo's Keio University that his trip across the world's capital cities had left him "quite optimistic" in the world cooperating to reduce existential risk in the short term, alleviating his concerns and skepticism on the matter, per a Reuters report.

"I came to the trip ... skeptical that it was going to be possible in the short term to get global cooperation to reduce existential risk but I am now wrapping up the trip feeling quite optimistic we can get it done," Altman said.

The OpenAI CEO has been on a tour of the world's capital cities, looking to capitalize on interest in generative AI and raise awareness for the need to regulate the burgeoning technology in the cities he visited along the way.

These cities include the United Arab Emirates, where he warned that AI could pose an existential risk to humanity and that the formation of an international agency like the International Atomic Energy Agency may be necessary to oversee and regulate the use of AI, per Japan Today.

"We face serious risk. We face existential risk," said Altman during his visit to the country. "The challenge that the world has is how we're going to manage those risks and make sure we still get to enjoy those tremendous benefits. No one wants to destroy the world."

Altman and hundreds of industry leaders previously signed a letter warning the world about the need to mitigate the risk of extinction from AI and that it should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, like pandemics and nuclear war.

Global Response To Calls For AI Regulation

World leaders and their constituents have heard people's call for AI regulation alongside their interest in using it to enhance their skills. You may recall that the EU has been adapting existing rules and creating new guidelines and requirements to govern generative AI in the form of the AI Act's draft, which the EU will turn into law before 2023 ends.

Meanwhile, the US is more open to adapting existing laws for AI rather than creating new legislation; Congress is already considering two bipartisan bills that would manage the government's use of AI and gauge if the US is competitive against tech rivals in terms of AI, like China.

Japan already has organizations and laws that govern and regulate the use of AI, such as the Integrated Innovation Strategy Promotion Council and its Social Principles of Human-Human-Centric AI and the Governance Guidelines for Implementation of AI Principles, which the country created in 2021 to serve as a comprehensive tool for developers, service providers and companies in the field of AI for them to refer to several relevant sets of national and international guidelines easily, per Taylor Wessing.