Conversation: Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, Testifies before Senate Judiciary Committee

On Tuesday, May 16th, 2023, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. Testifying along with Mr. Altman were Christina Montgomery, Vice President and Chief Privacy& Trust Officer for IBM, and Gary Marcus, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus from New , a well-known professor and frequent critic of A.I. technology.

You can watch the full testimony of Altman, Montgomery, and Marcus here on this 2 1/2-hour YouTube vid.

Quick Ancillary Reads

This ABC News article by Ordonez et al. is a good, fast read on Altman’s point of view. (All cited works are listed in the Resources and References section at the end of this post.)

Montgomery’s prepared opening statements for her testimony is HERE.

Not Entirely Frivolous

One of the questions that a senator asked Altman was about whether OpenAI had been sued. Altman said “Yes,” but that the suit was “frivolous.”

An article by Heather Tal Altman probes a bit into this “frivolous” lawsuit, and shows that … it is not entirely frivolous. This is a good read, and balances some of the “we’re all in this together” good feeling presented by Altman during the hearing.

Resources and References

General

General articles about the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, May 16th.

• Ordonez, Victor, Taylor Dunn, and Eric Noll. 2023. “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI will reshape society, acknowledges risks: ‘A little bit scared of this.'” ABC News (online; May 16, 2023). (Accessed May 17, 2023; available online at https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/openai-ceo-sam-altman-ai-reshape-society-acknowledges/story?id=97897122.)

Sam Altman – Bio & Background

• Nguyen, Britney. 2023. “Meet OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who learned to code at 8 and is a doomsday prepper with a stash of gold, guns, and gas masks.” Business Insider (May 1, 2023). (Accessed May 18, 2023; available online at https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-chatgpt-openai-ceo-career-net-worth-ycombinator-prepper-2023-1.)

Not Entirely Frivolous

• Murphy, Heather Tal. 2023. “Sam Altman Charmed Congress. But He Made a Slip-Up.” Slate.com (May 17, 2023). (Accessed May 17, 2023; available online at https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/sam-altman-openai-hearing-senate-chatgpt-frivolous-lawsuit.html.)