The tone of congressional hearings involving technology industry leaders in recent years can best be described as antagonistic. Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and other tech luminaries have been denounced on Capitol Hill by lawmakers unhappy with their companies.

But on Tuesday, Sam Altman, chief executive of San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, tested before Senate subcommittee members and basically agreed with them on the need to regulate the increasingly powerful artificial intelligence technology being built internally by his company and others like Google. and Microsoft.

In his first testimony before Congress, Mr. Altman pleaded with lawmakers to regulate artificial intelligence as committee members showed promising understanding of the technology. The hearing highlighted the deep concern technologists and governments have about the potential harm of AI. But this concern did not extend to Mr. Altman, who had a friendly audience among the members of the subcommittee.

The arrival of Mr. Altman, a 38-year-old Stanford dropout and tech entrepreneur, marked his baptism as a leading figure in the field of AI. Boyish Mr. Altman swapped his usual pullover and jeans for a blue suit and tie for a three-hour hearing.

Mr. Altman also spoke about his company’s technology at a dinner with dozens of members of the House of Representatives Monday night and met privately with a number of senators ahead of the hearing, according to people who attended the dinner and meetings. He proposed a loose framework for managing what happens next with rapidly evolving systems that some say could revolutionize the economy.

“I think if this technology goes wrong, it could go completely wrong. And we want to announce it,” he said. “We want to work with the government to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Mr. Altman made his public debut on Capitol Hill as interest in AI skyrocketed. Tech giants have poured effort and billions of dollars into what they call transformative technology, even amid growing concerns about AI’s role in spreading disinformation, destroying jobs and once equaling human intelligence.

This brought attention to the technology in Washington. President Biden said this month at a meeting with a group of AI executives that “what you’re doing has great potential and great danger.” Top leaders in Congress have also pledged to regulate AI.

It was clear that members of the Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and Law did not plan to question Mr. Altman harshly, as they thanked Mr. Altman for meeting privately with them and for agreeing to attend the hearing. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, has repeatedly referred to Mr. Altman by name.

Altman was joined in the hearing by Christina Montgomery, IBM’s director of privacy and trust, and Gary Markus, a renowned professor and frequent critic of artificial intelligence technology.

Mr. Altman said his company’s technology could destroy some jobs but also create new ones, and that “it will be important for the government to figure out how we want to mitigate this.” Echoing an idea proposed by D. Marcus, he proposed the creation of an agency that issues licenses for the development of large-scale AI models, safety regulations, and tests that AI models must pass before they are released to the general public.

“We believe the benefits of the tools we have deployed so far far outweigh the risks, but keeping them secure is vital to our work,” Mr. Altman said.

But it was unclear how lawmakers would respond to the call for AI regulation, as Congress’ track record in tech regulation is grim. Dozens of privacy, free speech and security bills have failed over the past decade due to partisan disputes and fierce opposition from tech giants.

The United States lags behind the world in terms of privacy rules, free speech, and child protection. It also lags behind AI rules. European Union lawmakers are set to introduce regulations for this technology later this year. And China has created artificial intelligence laws that match its censorship laws.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and chairman of the Senate College, said the hearings were the first in a series to learn more about the potential benefits and harms of AI in order to eventually “write the rules” for it.

He also acknowledged that Congress has not kept up with the introduction of new technologies in the past. “Our goal is to demystify and hold these new technologies accountable in order to avoid some of the mistakes of the past,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Congress failed to meet the moment on social media.”

Members of the subcommittee proposed the creation of an independent agency to oversee AI; rules that force companies to disclose how their models work and what datasets they use; and antitrust rules to prevent companies like Microsoft and Google from monopolizing the nascent market.

“The devil is in the details,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI ​​Now Institute’s Center for Policy Studies. She said Mr. Altman’s proposals on the rules didn’t go far enough and should include restrictions on the use of AI in police and the use of biometrics. She noted that Mr. Altman showed no signs of slowing down the development of the OpenAI ChatGPT tool.

“It’s such an irony to see a pose of concern for the harm of people who are quickly releasing a system responsible for this very harm into commercial use,” Ms. West said.

Some lawmakers in the hearings continued to demonstrate the continuing gap in technological know-how between Washington and Silicon Valley. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, repeatedly asked witnesses whether the word liability protection for online platforms like Facebook and Google extended to AI.

Mr. Altman, calm and unflappable, tried several times to distinguish between AI and social media. “We need to work together to find a whole new approach,” he said.

Some members of the subcommittee have also shown a reluctance to push too hard on an industry that has great economic prospects for the United States and competes directly with adversaries such as China.

The Chinese are building artificial intelligence that “reinforces the core values ​​of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese system,” said Delaware Democrat Chris Koons. “And I’m concerned about how we’re advancing AI that empowers and strengthens open markets, open societies and democracy.”

Some of the most challenging questions and comments to Mr. Altman came from Dr. Altman. Markus, who noted that OpenAI has not been transparent about the data it uses to develop its systems. He expressed doubt about Mr. Altman’s prediction that new jobs would replace jobs destroyed by AI.

“Here we have unprecedented opportunities, but we are also facing the perfect storm of corporate irresponsibility, large-scale deployment, lack of proper regulation and inherent insecurity,” the doctor said. Marcus said.

Tech companies argue that Congress should be wary of any general rules that unite different types of AI. At Tuesday’s hearing, IBM’s Ms. Montgomery called for an artificial intelligence law similar to proposed European rules that outlines different levels of risk. She called for regulations focused on specific uses rather than the technology itself.

“At its core, AI is just a tool, and tools can serve different purposes,” she said, adding that Congress should take “an AI fine-tuning approach.”