OpenAI CEO Altman urges trust in tech firms to manage AI risks
Speaking at a conference in San Francisco, Altman acknowledged that advances in AI had made it easier to envisage potential failures, saying, "It doesn't take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong" and that "the world is right to be afraid of this"
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the public was justified in fearing the rapid development of artificial intelligence, while arguing that technology companies should be trusted to manage the risks without relying solely on government regulation.
Speaking at a conference in San Francisco, Altman acknowledged that advances in AI had made it easier to envisage potential failures, saying, "It doesn't take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong" and that "the world is right to be afraid of this".
At the same time, Altman said technology companies were capable of regulating themselves and asked the public to trust the industry to act responsibly, says the BBC.
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"The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it's the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this," he said.
Altman said OpenAI would prioritise safety as AI systems become more capable. He said the company would "keep alignment and safety way ahead of capabilities" and would "slow down or stop" if it could not continue developing the technology safely.
He also backed calls to slow the pace of frontier AI development to allow safeguards to be established.
Altman's comments come as public scrutiny of AI safety has increased following a viral post by a former Anthropic researcher warning that unchecked AI could pose existential risks to humanity by the end of the decade. A number of AI executives and experts have expressed agreement with concerns about the potential risks.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for a slower pace of frontier AI development and urged governments to introduce formal regulations.
Industry argues for self-regulation
Other technology executives have also argued that AI companies have incentives to manage the risks associated with increasingly capable systems without additional government intervention.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said technology laboratories faced strong financial incentives and legal liability to ensure that their systems remained aligned. He also argued that a laboratory that failed to prioritise safety would fall behind.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said "we don't need new laws or regulations," describing AI safety as an "engineering problem". He advised executives to voluntarily pause or withhold product releases if they believed an organisation was not fully in control of the technology.
Frontier AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind, have also been negotiating voluntary, industry-wide safety standards.
OpenAI executive Chris Lehane said companies were developing voluntary frameworks "with or without government support", while cautioning against allowing "the perfect become the enemy of the good".
Critics question voluntary approach
The industry's push for voluntary safeguards has faced criticism from other technology figures, who argue that companies should not be left to oversee the risks created by their own products.
Anthropic's Jack Clark warned that treating AI as a "totally unregulated industry" amounted to "rolling dice with immense risks".
Patrick Hillman of Logical Intelligence said public trust in technology companies was low, arguing that Silicon Valley was trusted as little as Washington.
"If labs truly believe their technology is dangerous, they must explicitly state what they are prepared to stop doing," Hillman said.
