ChatGPT creator OpenAI’s CEO yesterday said it was possible to get regulation wrong, but this should not be feared, amid global concerns about rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
Many countries are planning AI regulation, and the UK is hosting a global AI safety summit in November, focusing on understanding the risks posed by the frontier technology and how national and international frameworks could be supported.
Taiwan is drafting an act to govern AI, which would cover the legal definition of AI, privacy protections, data governance, risk controls and related ethical principles, the National Science and Technology Council said in July.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Sam Altman, CEO of Microsoft Corp-backed OpenAI, said during a Taipei visit that although he was not so worried about government over-regulation, it could happen.
“I also worry about under-regulation. People in our industry bash regulation a lot. We have been calling for regulation, but only of the most powerful systems,” he said.
“Models that are like 10,000 times the power of GPT4, models that are like as smart as human civilization, whatever, those probably deserve some regulation,” added Altman, speaking at an AI event hosted by the charitable foundation of Terry Gou (郭台銘), the founder of major Apple Inc supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團).
Altman said that the tech industry has a “reflexive anti-regulation thing.”
“Regulation has been not a pure good, but it has been good in a lot of ways. I do not want to have to make an opinion about every time I step on an airplane how safe it is going to be, but I trust that they are pretty safe and I think regulation has been a positive good there,” he said.
“It is possible to get regulation wrong, but I don’t think we sit around and fear it. In fact we think some version of it is important,” he said.
Gou, an independent candidate running for Taiwan’s presidency, attended the forum but did not speak at the event.
Additional reporting by CNA
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