Watch: Treat ChatGPT like a tool not a creature, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tells Senate Committee

From anxiety about bots stealing jobs from human beings to ChatGPT either professing love towards or threatening users, AI has raised eyebrows across the globe. Waking up to the potential of AI and the risks that it poses after the tremendous rise in popularity and usage of the tech, the White House even hosted top CEOs from Sundar Pichai to Satya Nadella for an emergency meeting.

As the US government tries to preemptively create a framework for regulating AI, ChatGPT maker OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman testified before a senate judiciary committee.

AI not the same as social media

As Senator Richard Blumenthal pointed out the government's failure to regulate social media in time, Altman clarified that AI is completely different.

He maintained that AI is a far more transformative development in tech, and that it can't be compared to an online feed of cat memes or racist messages.

Although he agreed that there should be regulation instead of moving fast and breaking things, Altman added that simply blocking innovation won't be correct either.

Will AI snatch away jobs?

Altman went on to tell the committee that ChatGPT needs to be treated as a tool instead of a creature, and said that generative AI models are good at doing tasks but not jobs.

Apart from Altman, IBM's Chief Privacy Officer Christina Montgomery also spoke at the hearing and did admit that some jobs will transition away from humans to AI.

She also agreed with the need for regulation as AI poses an obvious risk even to those whose jobs were safe from automation.