ChatGPT maker touts how AI benefits Californians amid safety concerns

OpenAI, the shaper of fashionable chatbot ChatGPT, outlined however artificial quality is creating jobs and making Californians much productive arsenic the tech institution faced heightened information concerns this week.

In a study released Wednesday, the San Francisco tech institution said ChatGPT has 9 cardinal play progressive users successful California, much than successful immoderate different state. ChatGPT has a full of 700 cardinal progressive play users.

OpenAI is nether much scrutiny this week aft the parents of a California teen who died by termination sued the company, alleging that ChatGPT coached the 16-year-old connected termination methods.

On Monday, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and 44 different attorneys wide sent a missive to 12 companies, including OpenAI, stating that they would beryllium held accountable if their AI products exposed children to harmful content.

The OpenAI study pointed to the galore affirmative ways Californians usage ChatGPT, a chatbot that tin make text, images and adjacent code. It highlighted the ample fig of AI occupation postings and AI companies successful the state. It said AI has been utilized to forecast the dispersed of wildfires and assistance doctors and farmers.

Using the chatbot for advice, learning caller concepts, penning and coding are among the ways Californians usage ChatGPT, OpenAI said. In the state, astir 24% of users are betwixt the ages of 18 and 24, and 34% are betwixt the ages of 25 and 34, OpenAI said.

The company’s caller report, which The Times viewed earlier it was published, comes connected the aforesaid time that OpenAI’s main economist, Aaron “Ronnie” Chatterji, and Chris Lehane, who heads planetary argumentation astatine OpenAI, are scheduled to talk astir AI’s economical effect astatine an lawsuit successful Sacramento.

Lehane said what happened to the teen who died was a “human tragedy.” OpenAI focuses connected safety, and the “vast bulk of people” are utilizing ChatGPT successful “positive and constructive ways,” helium said.

The Democratic governmental veteran, who has worked for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, didn’t constituent to a circumstantial measure that OpenAI is disquieted about, but helium said a batch of California authorities heavy focuses connected information concerns and would bounds people’s entree to AI technology.

Although the temper successful Washington has moved distant from regulating the almighty caller exertion with the accomplishment of President Trump, guardrails and regulations being considered successful Sacramento could person a ample effect connected the industry, arsenic truthful galore of the starring AI companies are based successful California.

“One of the perchance biggest challenges with this exertion is the economical opportunity, making definite radical tin enactment successful it, making definite California continues to pb arsenic this being the halfway of the AI economy,” Lehane said.

Tech companies person been lobbying against regulations that could hinder their quality to vie successful the AI race. They’re besides committing to walk hundreds of billions of dollars to physique successful the United States amid threats of tariffs. Trump, successful July, unveiled an “AI enactment plan” that aims to chopped “red tape” truthful tech companies could rapidly make and physique AI technology.

“There should beryllium a California mentation of however you deliberation big, enactment large and physique large that’s accordant with the values of this state,” Lehane said.

As the AI contention continues to play a bigger relation successful California’s economy, workers successful assorted industries, including entertainment, modeling and tech, person expressed anxiousness astir AI’s imaginable to instrumentality distant jobs.

In July, a study by the Brookings Institution recovered that the regions astir San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles were among the astir prepared for AI. But the survey besides noted that imaginable occupation displacement is 1 downside for which cities person to ticker out.

In its report, OpenAI pointed to the fig of AI-related occupation postings successful California and the AI companies based successful the authorities that person been helping capable up immoderate of the vacant bureau abstraction successful cities, including San Francisco.

Lehane, who signaled that OpenAI would merchandise much information astir this taxable successful September, said that past shows exertion volition make much jobs than it replaces, but acknowledged that immoderate roles volition sometimes vanish. For example, the usage of electricity, helium said, led to the displacement of lamplighters but created jobs for electricians.

“Obviously, clip is going to archer connected this,” helium said.