At a Senate hearing on 16 May, Altman suggested that government intervention in the AI industry is necessary to keep it safe, and proposed the formation of a body that would regulate AI systems and companies.

Altman’s appeal at Congress comes during international calls for AI’s regulation, considering how generative AI and future advancements could profoundly impact areas such as jobs, education, privacy, and security.

Senator Richard Blumenthal — who chairs the Senate’s subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law — opened the hearing with an audio recording that sounded like him, but was actually a voice clone trained on his speech patterns, reading opening remarks written by ChatGPT.

Blumenthal used this as an example of how AI could inherently affect privacy and security. “I am sure we’ll look back in a decade and view ChatGPT and GPT-4 like we do the first cell phones — those big, clunky things that we used to carry around,” he prefaced.

“But we recognise that we are on the verge of a new era. The audio and my playing it may strike you as curious or humorous, but what reverbated in my mind was: What if I had asked it, and what if it had provided, an endorsement of Ukraine surrendering or Vladimir Putin’s leadership?”

In response to the advancements being made in AI — and the developments that are yet to come — Altman advocated for regulation and governance, suggesting various ways the AI industry could be handled moving forward.

In addition to AI system licensing and de-licensing, Altman proposed that the government puts in various safeguards, such as safety standards for high-capability AI models, and safety reviews prior to an AI system’s deployment.

Further, he urged legislators to require independent audits from external experts outside of the government or the AI company in question, so that the AI systems operate within legislative guidelines.

“OpenAI was founded on the belief that artificial intelligence has the potential to improve nearly every aspect of our lives, but also that it creates serious risks we have to work together to manage,” Altman told legislators.

“We’re here because people love this technology; we think it can be a ‘printing press’ moment, but we have to work together to make it so.”

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Altman was joined in testimony by two other AI experts, Christina Montgomery, IBM’s chief privacy and trust officer, and Gary Marcus, professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. All three supported federal and global governance of the AI industry.

Senator Blumenthal indicated that the hearing was just the first in a series of committee hearings.