US Senator Richard Blumenthal opened a hearing on AI with a recording of his voice describing the risks of this emerging technology.
“Too often we have seen what happens when technology outpaces regulation,” he said. “The unbridled exploitation of personal data, the proliferation of disinformation and the deepening of societal inequalities.”
But he didn’t write it and he didn’t record it.
Drawing chuckles from the hearing room on Tuesday, the Connecticut Democrat said the text was written by OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the audio was a voice application trained on his speeches on the Senate floor.
All eyes turned to Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, who was sitting at the witness table, ready to provide testimony, alongside IBM’s Chief Privacy and Trust Officer Christina Montgomery.
Read more: OpenAI’s Altman Casts Global Gaze in Urging AI Regulation in US
Blumenthal said it was amazing that artificial intelligence could produce such a realistic audio clip, as he went on to actually read the rest of his opening statement. But he said the potential applications were potentially terrifying.
“What if I’d asked it, and what if it had provided an endorsement of Ukraine surrendering or Vladimir Putin’s leadership?” Blumenthal said. “The prospect is scary.”
Blumenthal leads the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, which hosted Tuesday’s hearing on artificial intelligence technologies.
Altman and Montgomery during the hearing both called on senators to regulate AI, which is raising ethical, legal and national security concerns.
Read more: OpenAI, IBM Ask Senate to Act on AI After Past Tech Failures
(Updates with calls for regulation in final paragraph. A previous version of this story corrected the spelling of Vladimir Putin in the seventh paragraph.)
