Mr. Altman Goes to Washington

In a dramatic example of the power of AI Senator Richard Blumenthal DCT opened the hearing by stating quotToo often we have seen what happens when technology outpaces regulation the unbridled exploitation of data the deepening of societal inequalities We have seen how algorithmic biases can perpetuate discrimination and prejudice and how the lack of transparency can undermine the public39s trustquotExcept it was notamp160 Senator Blumenthal that wrote or said those words It was an AI that had been trained on Blumenthal39s speeches for his perspective and voice an example of how as AI learns and improves the threats to political misinformation and what can be considered as acceptable evidence in our judicial system will undermine decades of precedentIn their frequent visits to Congress over the past three years Meta39s Mark Zuckerberg Amazon39s Jeff Bezos Google39s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft39s Satya Nadella were subjected by our elected officials to confrontational interrogations that were illustrative of their large lack of tech knowledge and at times downright nonsensical and embarrassing On the other end the tech CEOs39 responses were evasive overly pedantic and decidedly and precisely quotcorporatequot in their nonanswer answers In last month39s disastrous testimony by TikTok CEO39s Shou Zi Chew the subcommittee39s demeanor and questions bordered on McCarthyism and Chew39s evasiveness did not help ease any concerns about the national security risk that TikTok representsIn contrast Altman Montgomery and Marcus were transparent open judicious and thoughtful in their responses to questions that were equally curious intelligent and wideranging From the impact of AI on jobs which Professor Marcus doesn39t think is immediate at a large scale but will be when AGI is achieved to political misinformation to autonomous targeting with drones to copyright protection for creators these important topics were discussed not with hype or bombasity but with civility and a true desire to begin these significant conversations in earnestThat39s not to say the three witnesses were always on the same page Professor Marcus in his opening statement questioned OpenAI39s adherence to its original mission statement which says quotOur goal is to advance AI in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole unconstrained by a need to generate financial returnquotSeven years later they are largely beholden to Microsoft embroiled in part in an epic battle of search engines which routinely make things upquot Marcus continued quotThat39s forced Alphabet to rush out products and deemphasize safety Humanity has taken a back seatquotAlso when the discussion turned on whether or not a new federal agency should be established to quotlicensequot and audit compliance of moreadvanced models IBM39s Montgomery appeared to be the sole dissenterIn a datadriven advertising world AI and the ad industry are getting ever closer to a symbiotic relationship Advertising needs the AI to create more targeted audiences and to drive less biased media mix models and create more predictive models around business actions and outcomes AI needs advertising to continue to generate human action to feed those models So it39s axiomatic that any policy or regulation around AI is destined to have an impact on how we can continue down the datadriven communications path And make no mistake the one very clear message of this week39s hearing had less to do with AI and more to do with the lessons learned from the past laissez faire selfregulatory approach to social media which Congress has no intention of repeating especially with a technology that some including its creators have called the biggest threat to humanity since the nuclear bombNeed proof of how pissed Congress is about their missteps on social media Senator Dick Durbin DIL brought up the wide bipartisan support that recent privacycentric legislation has received noting that in his time in the Senate he has never seen bills passed by unanimous roll calls Those bills areThe Promoting Digital Privacy Technologies Act HR 847 which has passed both the House and the SenateThe Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale S 1265 which has passed the SenateThe Children39s and Teens39 Online Privacy and Protection Act S 1628 which has passed the SenateThe Protecting Personal Health Data Act S24 which has passed the SenateMr Altman was repeatedly questioned on whether or not OpenAI would claim Section 230 protection to which he strongly agreed that Section 230 did not apply quotI believe that people should have the right to sue companies for damages caused by AIquot Altman said quotIt will also help to deter companies from developing AI that is harmfulquotAltman believes that any regulation of AI should require transparency around how the AI was trained and how they are used but he also emphasized that consumers should be informed if what they are watching or using was generated by AI Advertisers like CocaCola which recently released the mesmerizing ad quotCoca Cola Masterpiecequot created in part using AI would be required to either add a disclaimer or some quotyet to be createdquot industry standard logo that would inform a consumer that AI was involved It would also mean that any number of journalists or press organizations that are using AI to write or produce quottext to videoquot content would likely be required to do the same with various levels such as quotThis article was written entirely by ChatGPTquot quotChatGPT wrote a section of this articlequot or quotThis article was researched using ChatGPT but written by a humanquotAfter watching the hearing I do believe that a new commission similar to the FCC will be created for AI and data In particular most participants seemed to agree that AIs that are more powerful than today39s GPT4 will likely need to be regulated It39s likely that you will need to state your usecase for those models and obtain a license which can be cut off if the use of the AI is misused or deemed harmfulBut Wait That39s Not All amp8230This week39s hearing was Day One of our national work session on how we as a country will deal with the reality of AI in our lives Notice I didn39t say conversation A conversation implies all talk no action Action here is inevitable and I believe it will be swift It has to be as every single second AI is evolving and learning All aspects of the ad world from the 4As and the ANA to the IAB must be active participants in the process While of course those organizations should advocate for the best interests of their members they should also keep at the forefront that this is not simply a privacy or typical advertising lobbying effort but one that has immense implications for the future course of how we live and provide for ourselves and our families a truly next stage of human evolution And let39s use this week39s hearing as a guide on how we advocate for the needs of our industry with civility seriousness and a macrolevel perspective of what this moment really means Whether you like it or not science fiction is becoming science fact Let39s commit ourselves to delivering on the optimistic path and not the dystopian optionClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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Mr. Altman Goes to Washington

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Jeff Minsky

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