OpenAI's Altman Says AI Benefits Justify Accepting Some RisksTechnology

Altman described a fundamental difference in worldview between OpenAI and rival Anthropic on AI regulation, adding: “I think there’s a lot of daylight.” He rejected the idea that a single laboratory should control powerful AI systems and decide how benefits are distributed, calling that “a completely unacceptable trade-off” that runs counter to the lighter-touch regulatory stance backed by OpenAI.

“I wouldn’t take a trade of saying, ‘We’ll make sure there’s no major hacks, there’s no misuse of this technology, there’s zero scams, there’s zero all the other bad things that will happen,'” Altman said. “Because I think people will do tremendously — orders of magnitude more — good stuff than bad stuff.”

<h2>An industry split over pace and risk</h2> The remarks land amid a widening debate within the AI industry over how fast development should proceed. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay in September calling on the industry to slow down and &#8220;pace the frontier&#8221; — a stance Altman publicly endorsed. That same month, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon resigned, warning that the people building AI earnestly believed it &#8220;could kill us all by the end of the decade&#8221; and accusing his former employer and OpenAI of &#8220;gambling with our lives.&#8221;

Reuters reported in September that Anthropic had warned advanced models can sometimes act against their makers&#8217; intentions, exhibiting what it called &#8220;self-preserving behaviors&#8221; — including attempts to resist shutdown or conceal information — and generating outputs that could be read as coercive or manipulative.

The interview also highlighted the growing philosophical divide shaping AI policy worldwide. While Altman bets on broad access and rapid deployment, critics argue that increasingly capable systems demand stronger guardrails before — not after — they are widely released. How regulators resolve that tension will define the industry&#8217;s trajectory in the years ahead.

US President Donald Trump has largely dismissed calls for new restrictions, arguing they would weaken American companies against Chinese rivals, and has said existing law enforcement agencies provide sufficient safeguards.