Sam Altman Says the World Should Accept "Bad Things" as the Cost of AI Benefits
Published · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: theguardian.com ↗
"Saying the quiet part out loud: suck it up, so you can make us rich and powerful." — Gary Marcus, NYU
In an interview for Politico's Decoded podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman argued that society should tolerate hacks, scams, and other harms in exchange for what he described as "orders of magnitude" more good produced by AI. He said he would not accept a trade that guaranteed zero major misuse if it meant restricting access to the technology.
The comments landed as OpenAI's safety researcher David Robinson resigned, saying the company was "not being nearly careful enough," and days after a White House pact in which Trump urged AI companies to "self-police" on risks including cyberattacks and bioweapons. A former OpenAI policy researcher added that he regretted helping spread the idea of iterative deployment, which he said "makes no sense at all after many deaths have been tied to AI and as we're careening towards extinction-level risks."