OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Tuesday that people have reason to fear the risks of more powerful artificial intelligence, but he urged the public to trust AI companies to develop the technology safely, BBC reported.
“The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it’s the right thing and because we feel the magnitude of this,” Altman said at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.
Altman also noted growing concerns about the pace of AI development and the possibility that a few companies could have too much influence.
“It doesn’t take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong,” he said. “I think the world is right to be afraid of this.”
Advances in AI capabilities should remain ahead of safety and alignment at OpenAI and across the industry, Altman said. Companies must be prepared to slow down or stop development if they can’t find the right balance, he said.
His comments come as the question of whether AI companies should self-regulate or be subject to greater government oversight is becoming more heated. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says we need AI safety measures and a slower pace of development.
