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…
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.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-08
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-1420, v1: “Sam Altman says AI will make ‘bad things’ happen. Exhibit A: needless death | Moustafa Bayoumi.” Truvace, 2026-10-15. /record/TRV-2026-1420 (accessed at citation time). sha256 ac4b64cbb530f544…
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