ChatGPT CEO heads to Congress as lawmakers face AI explosion

Editor’s note: This report has been updated with the correct timing for the hearing featuring ChatGPT’s CEO.

The CEO of the company behind ChatGPT will head to Congress on Tuesday, as lawmakers race to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) while companies steam ahead with the technology. 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will make his public debut in Congress at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about oversight of AI, as lawmakers seek to better understand the range of risks posed by generative AI and possible ways to mitigate them. 

“AI is one of the most important issues of our times, with enormous potential both positive and negative, and it is crucial that we get it right,” Gary Marcus, professor emeritus at New York University, said in an email. 

Marcus will testify on the panel with Altman and Christina Montgomery, vice president and chief privacy and trust officer at IBM. 

Marcus said he will discuss the urgency of the situation and “the tremendous need for having independent scientists at the table” in order to “distinguish between hype and reality and to identify and mitigate a broad arrays of newly-developing risks.” 

Tuesday will mark Altman’s first public appearance in Congress, but the CEO has had private meetings with key lawmakers in the months since ChatGPT’s November launch and skyrocketing popularity. 

Altman is also scheduled to attend a dinner with House Democrats and Republicans cohosted by Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and GOP Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.), NBC News reported, following his testimony.

Generative AI explodes on the scene

ChatGPT notched 266 million visits in December, its first month open to the public, according to data from Similarweb. ChatGPT use has exploded since, with 1.76 billion visits in April alone.

Microsoft, which invested heavily in the OpenAI and has incorporated ChatGPT tools into its search engine Bing, has been a leading force in the AI arms race.

Tech giant Google also launched a rival chatbot —  Bard — and Wednesday unveiled plans to add generative AI to its search features. 

Google’s dominance in the search market means more users could be exposed to and use the generative AI tools. In the last month, Google had a total of 83.9 billion total visits, compared to 1.3 billion total visits to Bing, according to SimilarWeb data. 

Why Congress cares about AI

Both Democrats and Republicans are eager to address — and first, understand — AI.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary subpanel holding the hearing, said in a statement that AI “urgently needs rules and safeguards to address its immense promise and pitfalls.” 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), ranking member of the subcommittee, said in a statement that AI will be “transformative in ways we can’t even imagine” in ways that could implicate elections, jobs and security. He called the hearing a “critical first step towards understanding what Congress should do.” 

AI has also drawn the attention of top congressional leaders.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has power over what proposals advance to a floor vote, put forward a bill that aims to create a framework for AI regulation in a way meant to increase transparency and accountability. The leader has also met recently with Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk to discuss AI, following news that Musk founded a new AI company. 

In addition to Congress, the White House and regulatory agencies have signaled a focus on AI regulation. 

Last week, Vice President Harris met with heads of four companies developing AI, including Microsoft and Google, about risks from the technology. And four government agencies put out a joint statement pleading to enforce existing laws that could address emerging threats from AI tech. 

To date, most of the guidance from the government is through voluntary guidelines — leaving the industry to set the rules of the road. 

But the industry is also warning that the government should work alongside the industry in setting rules so as not to stifle innovation in the process. 

What to expect at the hearing

The hearing will feature two voices from industry: Altman and Montgomery. 

A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to comment on what Altman is planning to share during the hearing. 

Montgomery plans to discuss ways that business and government can collaborate to prioritize responsible AI development in a way that ensures innovation can thrive, according to a spokesperson for IBM. 

In a blog post earlier this month, Montgomery said that policymakers should ensure that any policy framework for AI is risk-based and “appropriately focused on the deployers of AI systems.”

She urged policymakers to create a framework that promotes transparency, leverages flexible approaches, differentiates between different types of business models and studies emerging risks. 

“Policymakers should swiftly act to better understand and mitigate the risks of foundation models while still ensuring the approach to governing AI remains risk-based and technology neutral,” she wrote.

–Updated at 10:18 a.m.