Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked the audience on stage at an event in Australia, the last stop on his global tour, "Do you know how many countries he's visited in the last few weeks?"

An audience member on stage answered "eight. However, when the real answer was revealed, everyone almost drew a breath - 22!

Yes, perhaps in this short period of five weeks from May 15 to June 19, there is perhaps no one in the world than the "father of ChatGPT" called Ultraman, the schedule is more busy. From the following schedule of the Ultraman is not difficult to see, in these five weeks, his trip across six continents, there are 22 on the plane, the cumulative flight hours reached a horrible 86 hours ......

Altman ran through almost every major country in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and even in countries like China, where he was unable to take time out to make the trip himself, Altman delivered a keynote speech at the AI Security and Alignment Forum at the 2023 Beijing Zhiyuan Conference via remote link.

In his final talk, located in Melbourne, Altman also said rather reluctantly, "I'm ready to go home, but it was still a very special experience to talk to so many people about OpenAI."

Like a star in transit, Ultraman's global tour

Anna Makanju, OpenAI's director of public policy, who accompanied Altman back to the U.S., said the company learned a lot from the conversations during Altman's global tour, including the need to make OpenAI products better for non-English speakers and to enable outsiders to distinguish whether content is generated by AI.

Despite concerns about the potential risks of AI, it's fair to say that Altman received a "star-studded" reception during much of his trip.

Since its release last November, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its seemingly uncanny ability to compose emails, poems or computer code with a simple conversational prompt, and in March OpenAI released the latest update to GPT-4, which provides a significant improvement in accuracy and usability over the previous version.

Right after the Melbourne event, Altman, dressed in a gray Henley shirt, dark pants and a pair of rainbow-colored sneakers, was surrounded by fans asking for selfies to take pictures and chat. Meanwhile, of course, at the foyer, several protesters held signs, one of which read, "AI is likely to cause the end of the world."

These two contrasting scenes are perhaps the true reflection of what the "father of ChatGPT" has been doing for most of his global tour.

Makanju, who accompanied Altman throughout his global tour, said she was surprised that at every stop, from Lisbon to Seoul, people were consistently concerned about not letting their countries miss out on the economic opportunities that the AI revolution could bring, even as they tried to protect themselves from the risks posed by AI technology developments.

She said, "People really want to make sure that whatever they do, it benefits their economy."

Makanju noted that the main risks people cite are fear of disinformation, fear that AI technology will affect the labor market, and more existential anxieties around what AI reasoning capabilities mean for humans.

The "father of ChatGPT" has a "face-to-face" with global regulators

Of course, compared to meeting ChatGPT fans around the world, chatting about the future of AIGC technology and learning more about the needs of people for this phenomenal application, it is clear that there are deeper goals and tasks behind Altman's global trip in the past weeks ......

Marietje Schaake, an international policy fellow at Stanford University and former member of the European Parliament, said of Altman's global trip that Altman is working hard to build connections around the world, largely because he understands that regulation is coming.

Schaake noted that as a result you will see that Altman has repeatedly said that his company welcomes regulation, and in doing so may be hoping to gain the goodwill of parliamentarians.

In an interview earlier this year, Altman described himself as someone who is concerned about the risks posed by artificial intelligence, and even "a little bit scared" of the technology.

Since his appearance at a U.S. congressional hearing last month, Altman has now met with several heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss the prospects and risks of AI. At last month's U.S. congressional hearing, Altman also called on the U.S. government to regulate the version of the Big Language model that drives ChatGPT.

In fact, the call for stronger AI regulation came to a head just as Altman's global tour was taking place.

Shortly after Altman's visit, the European Parliament voted to advance draft legislation called the Artificial Intelligence Bill, which is positioned as the first comprehensive set of AI regulations in the West, including restrictions on face recognition and requiring some AI models to disclose the copyrighted material used to train their models. In addition, during Altman's visit to Australia, the country is also conducting an eight-week public hearing on draft AI regulations.

Makanju said OpenAI is currently focused on developing a technically feasible approach to the management of the big models behind ChatGPT, such as standards for security assessments before models are deployed. She also noted that OpenAI does not yet have a formal position on the EU's AI bill, as there are still multiple versions of related legislation that must be harmonized.

Altman and other OpenAI executives have also suggested that some deployments of AI work above a certain threshold capability may require a global regulator to oversee it, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency's regulation of nuclear energy worldwide, in order to thoroughly inspect systems and test for compliance with safety standards.

Earlier this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked the audience on stage at an event in Australia, the last stop on his global tour, "Do you know how many countries he's visited in the last few weeks?"

An audience member on stage answered "eight. However, when the real answer was revealed, everyone almost drew a breath - 22!

Yes, perhaps in this short period of five weeks from May 15 to June 19, there is perhaps no one in the world than the "father of ChatGPT" called Ultraman, the schedule is more busy. From the following schedule of the Ultraman is not difficult to see, in these five weeks, his trip across six continents, there are 22 on the plane, the cumulative flight hours reached a horrible 86 hours ......

Altman ran through almost every major country in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, and even in countries like China, where he was unable to take time out to make the trip himself, Altman delivered a keynote speech at the AI Security and Alignment Forum at the 2023 Beijing Zhiyuan Conference via remote link.

In his final talk, located in Melbourne, Altman also said rather reluctantly, "I'm ready to go home, but it was still a very special experience to talk to so many people about OpenAI."

Like a star in transit, Ultraman's global tour

Anna Makanju, OpenAI's director of public policy, who accompanied Altman back to the U.S., said the company learned a lot from the conversations during Altman's global tour, including the need to make OpenAI products better for non-English speakers and to enable outsiders to distinguish whether content is generated by AI.

Despite concerns about the potential risks of AI, it's fair to say that Altman received a "star-studded" reception during much of his trip.

Since its release last November, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm with its seemingly uncanny ability to compose emails, poems or computer code with a simple conversational prompt, and in March OpenAI released the latest update to GPT-4, which provides a significant improvement in accuracy and usability over the previous version.

Right after the Melbourne event, Altman, dressed in a gray Henley shirt, dark pants and a pair of rainbow-colored sneakers, was surrounded by fans asking for selfies to take pictures and chat. Meanwhile, of course, at the foyer, several protesters held signs, one of which read, "AI is likely to cause the end of the world."

These two contrasting scenes are perhaps the true reflection of what the "father of ChatGPT" has been doing for most of his global tour.

Makanju, who accompanied Altman throughout his global tour, said she was surprised that at every stop, from Lisbon to Seoul, people were consistently concerned about not letting their countries miss out on the economic opportunities that the AI revolution could bring, even as they tried to protect themselves from the risks posed by AI technology developments.

She said, "People really want to make sure that whatever they do, it benefits their economy."

Makanju noted that the main risks people cite are fear of disinformation, fear that AI technology will affect the labor market, and more existential anxieties around what AI reasoning capabilities mean for humans.

The "father of ChatGPT" has a "face-to-face" with global regulators

Of course, compared to meeting ChatGPT fans around the world, chatting about the future of AIGC technology and learning more about the needs of people for this phenomenal application, it is clear that there are deeper goals and tasks behind Altman's global trip in the past weeks ......

Marietje Schaake, an international policy fellow at Stanford University and former member of the European Parliament, said of Altman's global trip that Altman is working hard to build connections around the world, largely because he understands that regulation is coming.

Schaake noted that as a result you will see that Altman has repeatedly said that his company welcomes regulation, and in doing so may be hoping to gain the goodwill of parliamentarians.

In an interview earlier this year, Altman described himself as someone who is concerned about the risks posed by artificial intelligence, and even "a little bit scared" of the technology.

Since his appearance at a U.S. congressional hearing last month, Altman has now met with several heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to discuss the prospects and risks of AI. At last month's U.S. congressional hearing, Altman also called on the U.S. government to regulate the version of the Big Language model that drives ChatGPT.

In fact, the call for stronger AI regulation came to a head just as Altman's global tour was taking place.

Shortly after Altman's visit, the European Parliament voted to advance draft legislation called the Artificial Intelligence Bill, which is positioned as the first comprehensive set of AI regulations in the West, including restrictions on face recognition and requiring some AI models to disclose the copyrighted material used to train their models. In addition, during Altman's visit to Australia, the country is also conducting an eight-week public hearing on draft AI regulations.

Makanju said OpenAI is currently focused on developing a technically feasible approach to the management of the big models behind ChatGPT, such as standards for security assessments before models are deployed. She also noted that OpenAI does not yet have a formal position on the EU's AI bill, as there are still multiple versions of related legislation that must be harmonized.

Altman and other OpenAI executives have also suggested that some deployments of AI work above a certain threshold capability may require a global regulator to oversee it, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency's regulation of nuclear energy worldwide, in order to thoroughly inspect systems and test for compliance with safety standards.