- By Shiona McCallum and Chris Vallance
- technology reporter
May 25, 2023
Updated 33 minutes ago
Image source: Getty Images
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OpenAI boss Sam Altman
The head of the company behind ChatGPT said it has no plans to leave Europe.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, reversed his threat earlier in the week to leave the bloc if coming artificial intelligence (AI) laws become too difficult to comply with.
However, after widespread coverage of his comments, he backed down.
“We’re delighted to continue operating here and obviously have no plans to leave,” he tweeted.
The proposed law could require generative AI companies to disclose what copyrighted material was used to train their systems to create text and images.
Many in the creative industries accuse AI companies of using the work of artists, musicians and actors to train systems to mimic their work.
However, according to Time Magazine, Mr. Altman worries that it would be technically impossible for OpenAI to meet some of the security and transparency requirements of the AI Act.
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A protester outside UCL where Sam Altman was speaking
Speaking at an event at University College London on Wednesday, Mr Altman added he was optimistic that AI could create more jobs and reduce inequality.
He also met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and heads of AI firms DeepMind and Anthropic to discuss the technology’s risks – from disinformation about national security to “existential threats” – and the voluntary measures and regulations needed to that need to be addressed.
But Mr Sunak said AI could “change humanity for the better” and “deliver better outcomes for the UK public, with new opportunities in a range of areas to improve public services”.
Image source: No10 Downing Street
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AI chiefs met the Prime Minister at #10
At the G7 summit in Hiroshima, leaders of the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada agreed that creating “trustworthy” AI must be “an international endeavor”.
And before any EU legislation comes into force, the European Commission wants to sign an AI pact with Google’s parent company Alphabet.
International cooperation is crucial for the regulation of AI, according to EU industry boss Thierry Breton, who met with Google boss Sundar Pichai in Brussels.
“Sundar and I agreed that we cannot afford to wait for AI regulation to actually become applicable – and to work with all AI developers to voluntarily sign an AI pact before the legal deadline to develop,” said Breton.
Silicon Valley veteran, author and O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Reilly said the best place to start is to introduce transparency rules and build regulatory institutions to enforce accountability.
“AI fear-mongering, combined with its regulatory complexity, could lead to analysis paralysis,” he said.
“Companies developing advanced AI must work together to articulate a comprehensive set of metrics that can be reported regularly and consistently to regulators and the public, and a process for updating those metrics as new best practices emerge.”