The world should accept bad things happening for the benefits of AI – Sam Altman
It’s not “really” that catastrophic.
Sam Altman. Image by Office of the Prime Minister of Japan/Illustration by Cybernews
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- Sam Altman said the world should accept some bad outcomes to gain AI’s benefits and preserve user agency.
- He rejected Anthropic’s warnings about severe loss of control and criticized calls for stricter AI regulation.
- Critics, including Luiza Jarovsky and JB Pritzker, said AI CEOs should not decide which harms are acceptable.
- Altman also said “super intelligence” is a better term than artificial intelligence, echoing Trump’s proposed renaming.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes humanity can make sacrifices for the sake of the technology.
During an appearance on Politico’s Decoded podcast, Altman again spoke about the dark side of technological progress.
“We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency,” he said.
Despite his own warnings, Altman criticized OpenAI’s major rival, Anthropic, which has called for more stringent AI regulations over fears that the technology could go rogue and take over the internet or even destroy humanity.
He rejected the possibility of “the really catastrophic risks,” including the potential “serious loss of control to AI.”
I disagree, but I understand the perspective of people who are like, ‘This technology is going to get so powerful, and it’s so dangerous, that a single lab in San Francisco should have it and make sure nothing bad happens, and kind of figure out how to dole out the benefit.Sam Altman, a CEO of OpenAI
The OpenAI CEO himself isn’t a stranger to doomer warnings. In 2015, he predicted that AI would most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, “there’ll be great companies.”
Altman said in July 2026 that AI won’t bring the promised 4-hour work week and will make people even busier, but they will be “secretly happy about it.”
His latest remarks about humans making sacrifices for the sake of AI have attracted criticism on social networks.
Luiza Jarovsky, co-founder of the AI, Tech & Privacy Academy, wrote on X that Altman and other AI CEOs should be more specific about the “bad things” they want the world to accept in the name of AI.
“Many people may NOT be willing to accept them,” she argued.
Governor of Illinois JB Pritzker said Altman shouldn’t be making any decisions about what “bad things” humanity has to accept on its behalf.
“I am not comfortable with that. None of us should be, especially when it comes to AI,” he wrote.
“Super intelligence” is a better term than AI
Asked about President Donald Trump’s recent decision to rename AI as super intelligence (SI), Altman told Politico’s Decoded that OpenAI has been using both terms.
“We’ve been talking about super intelligence for a few years now,” he said.
Speaking at the United Nations, Trump said the US will change the term “AI” to “super intelligence” in all official documents because the word “artificial” makes it sound fake.
The term “super intelligence” is loosely defined and is usually used to describe the technology that operates beyond human-level intelligence, surpassing even the capabilities of theoretical human-level artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Altman brushed off the difference between AI and SI, claiming that AGI has already arrived or will be achieved soon.
He said, “I think ‘super intelligence’ still understates the magnitude of what I think is happening, but I think it is a better word than artificial intelligence.”
Elon Musk announced that he was renaming his company, SpaceXAI, to SpaceXSI, following Trump's order, but didn’t provide a more detailed timeline.
