Newsday - Big tech leader calls for AI regulation in US senate hearing - BBC Sounds

Sam Altman - the head of the firm that created the artificial intelligence tool, ChatGPT - has told a panel of US senators he fears that artificial intelligence software, or AI, could cause significant harm to the world.

ChatGPT is a bot that can write essays, poems, and solve computer coding in a human-like way.

But Mr Altman also expressed optimism about the future and insisted that AI could help tackle problems like climate change and cancer.

Gerrit De Vynck covers technology for the Washington Post newspaper writing about artificial intelligence and the algorithms that increasingly shape society. He told Newsday why big tech's call for regulation must be taken with a grain of salt.

“The more powerful this technology seems the more valuable the companies that are designing it are, and Sam Altman - more so than anyone else in recent history - is responsible for advancing this technology and pushing it out into the public.

"But if he really thought it was extremely dangerous he might not be the one pushing it forward. So we should listen to what he has to say... but at the same time he stands to benefit commercially from people thinking this technology is powerful or magical or something like that."