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OpenAI’s Sam Altman makes U-turn, says ‘no plans of leaving Europe’ – Crypto News

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2 years ago

May 26, 2023

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OpenAI, the makers of the uber popular ChatGPT, have said that they have no plans of leaving Europe anytime soon, only a day after the OpenAI CEO had hinted of a possible exit citing the fact that European Union’s (EU)’s laws on artificial intelligence were becoming too difficult to comply with.

“We are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave,” Altman said in a tweet on Friday.

very productive week of conversations in europe about how to best regulate AI! We are excited to continue to operate here and of course have no plans to leave.

Sam Altman (@sama) May 26, 2023

The European Union is on its track to create the first set of rules globally to govern artificial intelligence. Notably, this step by the EU also comes in tandem with leaders of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, who have sought regulation of “super-intelligent” AIs, arguing that an equivalent to the International Atomic Energy Agency is needed to protect humanity from the risk of accidentally creating something with the power to destroy it, as reported by Guardian,

Altman had stated that the regulations being drafted by the EU, the EU AI Act was “over-regulating”.

After fears that AI in future would infringe and decimate employment in several employees, causing panic in world leaders, Altman has undertaken a global tour o charm leaders and powerbrokers and calm fears over artificial intelligence (AI), including that it could decimate industries, flood the web with misinformation and copyright infringements, and entrench racism.

The EU-Sam Altman disconnect

AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft, has created new possibilities around AI and fears around its potential have provoked excitement and alarm – and brought it into conflict with regulators.

In London, Sam Altman irritated EU officials after he told reporters OpenAI might have to “cease operating” in the bloc if any future regulations were too strict.

OpenAI first clashed with regulators in March, when Italian data regulator Garante shut the app down domestically, accusing OpenAI of flouting European privacy rules. ChatGPT came back online after the company instituted new privacy measures for users.

Microsoft later laid out billions of dollars to support OpenAI and now uses the firm’s technology in several of its products — sparking a race with Google, which has made a slew of similar announcements.

Altman, a 38-year-old rising star of Silicon Valley, has received rapturous welcomes from leaders everywhere from Lagos to London.

But his comments on the AI Act, a regulation aiming to protect people from technology like invasive surveillance, irked the bloc’s industry commissioner Thierry Breton.

He wrote on Twitter that Altman was “attempting blackmail” and said the EU was trying to help companies prepare for the regulation, which would not be in force until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

There is no point in attempting blackmail — claiming that by crafting a clear framework, Europe is holding up the rollout of generative #AI,

To the contrary!

With the “AI Pact I proposed, we aim to assist companies in their preparation to the EU AI Act 🇪🇺https://t.co/gHsV69L81S pic.twitter.com/N5r83yWtIe

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 25, 2023

OpenAI on Thursday said it will award 10 equal grants from a $1 million fund for experiments to determine how AI software should be governed and Altman called those grants “how to democratically decide on the behavior of AI systems”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Updated: 26 May 2023, 08:17 PM IST