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OpenAI’s Makanju is ‘bullish’ on government using her company’s tech

Updated Apr 18, 2024, 5:32pm EDT
North America
Shahar Azran/Getty Images
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The U.S. government needs to expand broadband access to increase the public’s access to artificial intelligence advancements, OpenAI’s Vice President of Global Affairs, Anna Makanju, said at Semafor’s World Economic Summit on Thursday.

“It’s one of the things that keeps me up at night,” Makanju said. “So the reasons that I’m extremely bullish on government using it because they are ultimately, the biggest providers of services [to people].”

“AI is going to possibly exacerbate the [lack of broadband access],” she added, and will spark conversations on how to solve the bottlenecks.

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Makanju also said that one of OpenAI’s major concerns is the acceleration of deepfakes, which are becoming higher-quality and risk spreading more disinformation. While she said there are some guardrails in place, Makanju warned of the “liar’s dividends” where the public becomes so distrustful of all content that they no longer know what to believe as the truth.

“We need to strike a balance between generating awareness that [deepfakes] exist and overstating the case of nothing is real anymore, and people can’t trust their eyes,” she said.

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