Testifying before Congress on May 16, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said it was time for regulators to start setting limits on powerful AI systems. “As this technology advances we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too,” Altman told a Senate committee. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong,” he said, claiming it could do “significant harm to the world.” He agreed with lawmakers that government oversight will be critical to mitigating the risks.
A topic barely on lawmakers’ radars a year ago, governments around the globe are now fiercely debating the pros and cons of regulating or even prohibiting some uses of artificial intelligence technologies. The question business leaders should be focused on at this moment, however, is not how or even when AI will be regulated, but by whom. Whether Congress, the European Commission, China, or even U.S. states or courts take the lead will…
This article was written by Blair Levin and originally published on hbr.org