Over the past few weeks, there's been some very public hand-wringing about artificial intelligence--a lot of it coming from people who have made A.I. their life's work. Geoffrey Hinton, dubbed the "godfather of A.I.," recently left his job at Google to embark upon a sort of media tour warning about the dangers of the technology. There was a public letter from Elon Musk and others calling for a pause in A.I. development and an essay in Time from theorist Eliezer Yudkowsky saying generative A.I. can harm humanity--or even end it. On Friday's episode of What Next: TBD, I spoke with Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation and co-founder of the AI Now Institute at NYU, to sort through the real threat of A.I. and what the doomerism discourse is missing. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. What do you make of the concerns raised by Geoffrey Hinton and others when it comes to A.I. safety?

Altman advocated for a number of regulations, including a new government agency charged with creating government standards for the field, to address mounting concerns that generative AI could distort reality and create unprecedented safety risks. The CEO tallied a litany of "risky" behaviors presented by technology like ChatGPT, including spreading "one-on-one interactive disinformation" and emotional manipulation. At one point he acknowledged AI could be used to target drone strikes.

Sam Altman, the CEO of artificial intelligence lab OpenAI, told a Senate panel he welcomes federal regulation on the technology "to mitigate" its risks. The CEO of the company that delivered ChatGPT to the world said Tuesday he was not interested in becoming the federal government's top regulator of artificial intelligence technology. CEO Sam Altman and other witnesses at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee were asked what they would do to ensure the government has a firm grip on how AI is developed and deployed, and Altman said his first step would be to create a new federal agency. "I would form a new agency that licenses any effort above a certain scale of capabilities and can take that license away and ensure compliance with safety standards," he said in response to a question from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, speaks during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 16, 2023.

Sam Altman, the CEO of artificial intelligence lab OpenAI, told a Senate panel he welcomes federal regulation on the technology "to mitigate" its risks. Sam Altman, the CEO of artificial intelligence lab OpenAI, told a Senate panel he welcomes government regulation on the technology "to mitigate" its risks. "As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. But we believe that we can and must work together to identify and manage the potential downsides so that we can all enjoy the tremendous upsides. It is essential that powerful AI is developed with democratic values in mind. And this means that U.S. leadership is critical," Altman said Tuesday.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is speaking in front of Congress about the dangers of AI after his company's ChatGPT exploded in popularity in the past few months. Lawmakers are grilling the CEO, stressing that ChatGPT and other models could shape'human history' like the printing press or the atomic bomb. The printing press, according to officials, brought liberty to the American people, while the atomic bomb left behind haunting consequences. Altman told senators that generative AI could be a'printing press moment,' but he is not blind to its fault, noting policymakers and industry leaders need to work together to'make it so.' Tuesday's hearing is the first of a series intended to write rules for AI, which lawmakers said should have been done with the birth of social media.

The CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for creating artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and image generator Dall-E 2, said "regulation of AI is essential" on Tuesday as he testified in front of a Senate judiciary committee panel. In his first appearance in front of Congress, Sam Altman said he supported regulatory guardrails for the technology that would enable the benefits of artificial intelligence while minimizing the harms. "We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models," Altman said in his prepared remarks. "For example, the US government might consider licensing and testing requirements for development and release of AI models above a threshold of capabilities." Altman and Gary Marcus, emeritus professor of psychology and neural science at New York University, both called for a new regulatory agency for the technology.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman discussed the risks and benefits of AI at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on May 16, 2023. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a panel of senators Tuesday that his greatest fear as his company develops artificial intelligence capabilities is that is causes major harmful disruption for people, and acknowledged that AI has this potential downside if it isn't properly regulated. "My worst fears are that we cause significant – we, the field, the technology industry – cause significant harm to the world," Altman told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. "I think that could happen in a lot of different ways. It's why we started the company."

The Biden administration is increasingly calling AI an important priority, and there are growing efforts on Capitol Hill to draft legislation addressing the technology. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been developing a new AI framework, which would "deliver transparent, responsible AI while not stifling critical and cutting edge innovation."

Now, Altman will answer questions from a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, acting as a quasi-industry spokesman for companies racing ahead to deploy chatbots and other tools to the public, including Google and Microsoft. Topics are likely to include the risks of AI, competition in the industry and how government should handle it -- and maybe even whether robots are going to kill us all.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to bring ChatGPT-style product search to its web store, rivaling efforts by Microsoft Corp. and Google to weave generative artificial intelligence into their search engines. The e-commerce giant's ambitions appear in recent job postings reviewed by Bloomberg News. One listing seeking a senior software development engineer says the company is "reimagining Amazon Search with an interactive conversational experience" designed to help users find answers to questions, compare products and receive personalized suggestions. "We're looking for the best and brightest across Amazon to help us realize and deliver this vision to our customers right away," the company said in the listing, which was posted on its jobs board last month. "This will be a once in a generation transformation for Search."