When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman turned up to testify on Capitol Hill for the first time this week, he could hardly have expected an easy ride. The breakout success of ChatGPT, his company’s AI-powered chatbot, has triggered a frantic arms race in the tech industry — even though Altman himself has been among those warning that AI, if not properly controlled, could have troubling consequences for humanity.
His appearance before a Senate subcommittee produced what one former committee staffer described as “Altman-mania.” Lawmakers and the media appeared to hang on his every word as he called for AI regulation and admitted, with disarming understatement, “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
The performance was “night and day compared to other CEOs”, Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters — a reminder of the antagonism during Congressional grillings of other tech leaders, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Altman’s Capitol Hill debut gave many their first sight of the next would-be tech mogul. ChatGPT has turned OpenAI from a nerdy research lab into the hottest of tech properties, seriously rattling AI powerhouse Google along the way.