Yahoo Finance tech reporter Allie Garfinkle discusses what to watch for as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is set to testify at a Senate hearing regarding AI oversight on Tuesday.
Video Transcript
DIANA KING HALL: Speaking of ChatGPT, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is slated to testify tomorrow at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee meeting on regulating artificial intelligence. Yahoo Finance's Allie Garfinkle is here with a preview. Allie, what can we expect?
ALLIE GARFINKLE: Hi, Diane. Speaking of ChatGPT, where I feel like we're always speaking about ChatGPT at this point. And I think one of the key things to remember here is that OpenAI builds ChatGPT. So I'm going to say there are probably three things to watch here. But number one unequivocally is ChatGPT. I'm expecting lawmakers to expressly ask about ChatGPT. Remember, it's the app that started it all.
And remember, it is also the fastest app to reach 100 million users. So it's made a bit of history. But there's also a lot that I think lawmakers feel like they don't understand about it, what the risks of that app specifically are, who it is for, and what kind of protections that OpenAI has in place currently. So number one, ChatGPT, we're going to be hearing that name a lot in Congress tomorrow.
Number two is I think we're going to see a broader discussion about key risks for AI at large, things like misinformation, privacy concerns about bias. I'm expecting to see lawmakers ask questions like the kind of data these apps are built on and what companies are already doing, like OpenAI, to really make sure that they're protecting consumers.
And I'd say the last thing to really consider here, number three, is this is going to be something we don't often see in Congress, bipartisanship. Now, it's important to remember that this is being convened-- this hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee is being convened by Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator Josh Hawley, who both are, respectively, a Democrat and a Republican. So we're going to be seeing some questions across the aisle.
Now, the last thing here though, remember, the subtext for this all is, what does it mean to regulate AI?
SEANA SMITH: And Allie, what does it mean to regulate AI? Because there certainly has been this massive, massive push to do so. But it's a pretty tough task.
ALLIE GARFINKLE: It's an incredibly tough task, Seana. And you're right. I don't have all the answers. However, I think there are a couple of key things that are making it difficult. The first is, number one, every technologist I talk to says this is developing fast. And when something is developing as fast as of AI is, it's really hard to regulate it.
The other thing to consider here is we don't necessarily have a lot of good models. One expert I talked to recently said that Europe's models that it's putting forth are actually both too vague and too strict to really be applied successfully. And it ultimately comes down to a very fundamental problem about regulating technology and AI at large, which is that too much regulation, if you push it too far, you're going to stifle innovation. But if you don't regulate it at all or don't regulate enough, consumers are in danger. The way I would put it, Seana, is that AI regulation has a Goldilocks problem.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly. And the regulators, they want to do everything they can in order to crack down on AI. But how they do it, that is the big question right now. All right, Allie Garfinkle, great stuff. Thanks so much.
