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Sam Altman says AI will make ‘bad things’ happen. Exhibit A: needless death | Moustafa Bayoumi

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has some words for you about his company and the future of artificial intelligence. “One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency [to use it],” Altman told Politico’s new technology podcast and newsletter Decoded. Yikes. This statement – and the approach it represents – is, well, problematic, to say the…

By the Truvace desk2 min read1 sourceJournalismTRV-2026-1420· cite & verify
Sam Altman says AI will make ‘bad things’ happen. Exhibit A: needless death | Moustafa Bayoumi

In brief

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has some words for you about his company and the future of artificial intelligence. “One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency [to use it],” Altman told Politico’s new technology podcast and newsletter Decoded.

Altman’s mention of the “bad things” that AI might bring makes it sound like AI’s failures mistakenly create innocent, minor problems or even silly little episodes, such as the time when Google’s “AI Overviews” told users to put non-toxic glue on pizza so the cheese will be less likely to slide off. But culinary adventurism is hardly the only realm that AI operates in and the damage AI is inflicting has already and repeatedly proven itself to be dangerous and even potentially deadly to humans.

Main points

  1. Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has some words for you about his company and the future of artificial intelligence.
  2. This statement, and the approach it represents, is, well, problematic, to say the least.
  3. It’s also emblematic of precisely the kind of world-building and world-destroying that is happening with today’s technology in front of all our eyes, with precious little input from the rest of us.

The problem

Altman’s mention of the “bad things” that AI might bring makes it sound like AI’s failures mistakenly create innocent, minor problems or even silly little episodes, such as the time when Google’s “AI Overviews” told users to put non-toxic glue on pizza so the cheese will be less likely to slide off.

The rundown

This statement, and the approach it represents, is, well, problematic, to say the least. It’s also emblematic of precisely the kind of world-building and world-destroying that is happening with today’s technology in front of all our eyes, with precious little input from the rest of us.

Sources

  1. JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-08

The debate