Altman Says AI’s Benefits Justify Accepting Some Risks
publishers 21articles 25first reported 4 Oct, 20:55 UTCdeveloping since 5 Oct · 11 editions
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said society should accept some harms from artificial intelligence in exchange for its broader benefits, while arguing against regulations that could concentrate control of the technology among a few companies, individuals or countries.
“The world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency,” Altman said in an interview released Monday with Politico’s Decoded. He cited hacks, scams and misuse among the potential harms, saying he expected people to do “orders of magnitude more” good than bad with AI.
Altman described a philosophical divide between OpenAI and rival Anthropic over regulation. He rejected the idea that a single laboratory should control powerful AI and decide how its benefits are distributed, calling that an “unacceptable trade-off.” He said OpenAI favors a lighter-touch approach but still believes stronger regulation is needed, positioning the company between Anthropic’s more cautious stance and calls for little or no oversight.
Altman also acknowledged the possibility of humans losing control of advanced AI systems and urged caution about moving into that future. He said overly restrictive safety rules could themselves create danger by placing excessive power in too few hands.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for slowing development to better manage frontier AI risks, although Altman previously endorsed the idea of “pacing the frontier.” President Donald Trump has largely opposed new AI restrictions, arguing that they could hinder U.S. companies competing with China.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 2 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 18 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 21
- Source articles
- 25
- Given to the writer
- 8, 2 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 18 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →