Sam Altman Says Public Fears AI, but Should Trust AI Firms

Summary

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said people are justified in fearing artificial intelligence as its capabilities advance, but argued that the public should trust AI companies to act responsibly. Speaking at a Salesforce conference in San Francisco, he said OpenAI and the wider industry would keep alignment and safety ahead of capabilities and would slow or stop development if they could not do so safely. His remarks followed a viral warning from a former Anthropic researcher that unchecked AI could potentially kill all humans by the end of the decade, a claim that some executives and experts supported without explaining the mechanism. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei called for a slower pace of development and government regulation, while OpenAI said it was working with Anthropic and Google DeepMind on voluntary frontier-AI safety standards. Other industry leaders, including Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, also backed companies taking primary responsibility for safety. Political figures opposed that approach: Senator Bernie Sanders said AI decisions should not be left to a small group of wealthy technology leaders, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said the industry could not be trusted to regulate itself. Critics inside the sector likewise warned that leaving AI entirely unregulated would expose the public to substantial risks. The debate remains focused on whether voluntary industry commitments can provide sufficient accountability as AI companies become more influential.