Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, developer of the ChatGPT bot, said in a recent interview with ABC News that he is “a little scared” about AI technology, and its potential to affect people. The workforce, elections, and the spread of misinformation.
Company Open AI developed the popular ChatGPT, which is characterized by its ability to speak in natural language as if it were human beings talking to you, which led to a new wave in artificial intelligence.
“I think people are really having fun with ChatGPT,” Altman said in his interview with (ABC News). But his enthusiasm about the transformative potential of AI technology, which he said will eventually reflect “the collective strength, creativity, and human will,” is matched by his concerns about “authoritarian regimes” developing competing AI technology.
“We’re very concerned about authoritarian governments developing this,” Altmann said. Some global governments have already begun bringing competing AI technology to market.
For example, Chinese technology company Baidu recently held a launch event for ChatGPT’s competitor, the intelligent chatbot named Ernie.
Years before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that whoever leads artificial intelligence technology “will be the ruler of the world.” Altman described the comments as “chilling”.
Both Google and Microsoft rose strongly in the field of artificial intelligence. While Microsoft chose to partner with the company Open AI to integrate the large language model GPT into the search engine (the new Bing), Google unveiled its own chatbot. It has the name (BARD).
The impact of ChatGPT and similar AI tools in the US election process has yet to be felt, but Altman said the 2024 election is now a focus for the company.
“I am particularly concerned that these models could be used for disinformation on a large scale,” Altman told ABC News. “Now that they start writing code, they may use the templates to launch offensive cyberattacks,” he added.
ChatGPT’s scripting capabilities have impressed many developers. It already serves as a “copilot” for programmers, Altman said, and OpenAI is working to make similar jobs available for “every profession”.
The CEO of OpenAI acknowledged that this could mean many people would lose their jobs but said it would be an opportunity to create a better kind of job.
“We may have a higher quality of life, a much higher standard of living,” Altmann said. He added, “People need time to keep up with this technology, interact with it, and get used to it.”
