OpenAI's Altman to urge US lawmakers not to require AI model approvals

Sam Altman, fresh from attempting to woo Bernie Sanders into a federal ownership stake as we noted, is now heading to Capitol Hill to argue that government approval for AI models is a non-starter. Instead, he wants taxpayers to fund AI testing at the Commerce Department — because nothing says 'responsible' like 'pay for the testing you don't want to mandate.' It's the regulatory equivalent of wanting to eat your cake and have someone else pay for the bakery.

Meanwhile, Representative Obernolte's bipartisan bill we flagged last week is supposed to provide a framework, but Altman's lobbying suggests the industry intends to hollow out any meaningful oversight before it even gets written. The Commerce Department testing funding is a classic diversion: ask for carrots while opposing sticks. If the government is busy evaluating last year's models, who will watch the next GPT? It's a strategy that would make a tobacco lobbyist blush.

Altman's pitch is the usual Silicon Valley cocktail: 'Trust us, we're the good guys, but also please give us more money.' The implicit message is that the bipartisan bill should be heavy on research funding and light on binding approvals. With the Social Security Administration downsizing via AI as we reported and Uber cutting HR, the urgency for oversight has never been higher. But who needs regulation when you can have 'voluntary commitments' and an underfunded testing centre? Cheers to progress.