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OpenAI chief Sam Altman called for more testing of artificial intelligence in an interview with Oprah for her new television special, “AI and the Future of Us,” which aired Thursday evening.
Altman, who co-founded and heads the AI startup behind popular generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, said the next step is for the government to start carrying out safety tests of the rapidly advancing new technology.
“One of the first things we need to do — and this is now happening — is to get the government to start figuring out how to do safety testing of these systems, like we do for aircraft or new medicines,” he said.
“I personally, probably have a conversation with someone in the government every few days,” he added.
This contrasts with Altman and OpenAI’s internal position on restrictions to innovation. In May, the company disbanded its “Superalignment” team, which was responsible for working on the problem of AI’s existential dangers. The company said the team’s work would be absorbed by other research efforts across OpenAI. Critics, including former employees, have warned that the company and its ambitions pose “serious risks.”
Ultimately, OpenAI is hoping to reach what’s known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI — a futuristic view of machines that can pretty much do anything just as well as humans.
The special, which also included interviews with other experts, including Microsoft (MSFT-0.04%) founder Bill Gates and FBI director Christopher Wray. It’s now available to stream on Hulu (DIS+1.74%).
OpenAI is currently in talks to raise $6.5 billion from investors in a new funding round that would value the startup at $150 billion, Bloomberg reported. A deal allowing employees to sell stakes in the company valued OpenAI at $86 billion in late 2023, nearly triple what it was earlier in the year.
This latest funding round would be its single biggest raise since it received $10 billion in backing from Microsoft back in January 2023, and could reportedly also include funding from Apple and Nvidia.
For her part, Oprah stressed the importance of paying attention to the new technology and adapting to it as needed, given that AI — although still in its early stages — is probably here to stay.
“AI is still beyond our control and to a great extent, our understanding,” she said in prepared remarks at the start of the special. “But it is here, and we’re going to be living with technology that can be our ally as well as our rival.”
“We are this planet’s most adaptable creatures,” she added. “We will adapt again. But keep your eyes on what’s real. The stakes could not be higher.”
In a previous interview with the Washington Post, Winfrey said she hadn’t used AI until sitting down with Altman. After the interview, however, she began “using it for everything.”
But the television star also expressed her concerns about the dangers of the technology, including its use to generate misinformation and deepfakes.
“I don’t have a lot of faith,” she said, when it comes to regulating AI. “Everybody realizes there needs to be regulations. Everybody realizes that.”
“My fear is that, just like with automobiles and other technology that’s moved us forward, so much damage can be done, so many lives impacted negatively before people wake up and actually decide, ‘Oh, we need a seat belt on this thing. We need speed limits,’” she said.
But she wasn’t all doom and gloom. The positive impacts on education and medicine excite Winfrey, including the potential for children to have a personal tutor in an AI chatbot and helping doctors more quickly fill out paperwork to spend more dedicated time with their patients.