Sam Altman at Decoded: “The world should accept that bad things happen” for the benefit of AI

CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman said there remains a fundamental difference in worldview between his company and rival Anthropic when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence, arguing in an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO that the technology’s benefits justify accepting some risks — and that AI should remain widely available to the public.

“I think there’s a lot of daylight,” said Altman, co-author of Decoded and POLITICO’s senior tech reporter. Brendan Bordelon. When asked specifically about his departure from Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei, Altmann said: “We believe the world should accept that bad things happen for the benefit of this technology and the people who have agency. »

Anthropic has long been seen as the strongest proponent of AI regulation within the industry, a position that until recently was at odds with the lighter touch approach favored by OpenAI. But political differences between the two leading AI companies have narrowed in recent months, with OpenAI supporting stricter rules as it grapples with high-profile hacking incidents and malicious behavior by its models.

Altmann agree with Amodei’s call last month to slow down the development of the most advanced AI models. His company followed Anthropic in approve new state laws which impose stricter security requirements than ChatGPT’s maker had previously supported – a subtle change from its previous state strategy. And OpenAI lobbyists recently approved a bipartisan House proposal that would require large AI companies to incorporate external security assessors.