Altman Says Society Should Accept Some Negative Events Brought by AI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview that in order to obtain the benefits brought by AI technology and let the public decide how to use it, society should accept that some negative events will occur, including hacker attacks, fraud and so on. He said the value people create using this technology may be several orders of magnitude higher than the negative impacts, and argued that there is a major divergence between OpenAI and stricter AI safety advocates. Altman also criticized Elon Musk and warned that open-source models developed by competitors could trigger a huge wave of cybersecurity problems.
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Altman laid out the full logic of his lenient regulatory stance in the interview, which readers can use to understand the divergence in safety philosophy between OpenAI and Anthropic.
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Cailian Press, October 6 (Editor Niu Zhanlin) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman latest stated that, in the face of the benefits brought by artificial intelligence (AI) technology, society should accept some of the "negative events" that arise from it, and argued that the technology should continue to be widely open to the public.
The OpenAI chief mentioned hacker attacks, fraud, and "other bad things that will happen" in an interview. Once the remarks were published, they immediately triggered a strong backlash from critics of the AI giant. Just before that, the company's safety experts announced their departure and said over the weekend that OpenAI's "corporate culture has already gone wrong."
In an interview released on Monday, when asked how OpenAI and Anthropic differ in their philosophies on AI safety, Altman replied: "I think there is a big disagreement between us."
"One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety advocates is that we believe that in order to obtain the benefits of this technology and allow people to decide for themselves how to use AI widely, society should accept that some negative events will occur."
"I do think that the more relaxed regulatory stance we advocate means that society, as it figures out how to strengthen its own ability to withstand risks, needs to accept the fact that some bad things will happen. I would not choose this kind of trade-off: that we must ensure there will be no major hacker attacks, no technology abuse, no fraud of any kind, or all the other bad things that will happen. Because I think the enormous value people create with this technology will far exceed the negative effects it brings — the former may be several orders of magnitude greater than the latter."
His latest remarks also drew a strong response from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who said he absolutely could not accept letting "a few tech oligarchs decide safety issues for all of us."
Altman also once again engaged in a war of words with Elon Musk. In the interview, he said: "I don't like bullies, and I think Elon is one."
Altman also warned that open-source models developed by competitors could trigger "a coming tidal wave of cybersecurity problems." He said OpenAI can help customers cope with this risk.
OpenAI has canceled the release plan for a frontier model, but Altman's above remarks show that as the company prepares to go public, its overall attitude is becoming more optimistic and aggressive.
However, last week, U.S. President Trump and several AI company leaders, including Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, signed a more loosely regulated agreement at the White House.
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