Sam Altman says AI’s benefits justify accepting some risks

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI’s benefits justify accepting some risks, arguing that the technology should remain broadly accessible to the public. In an interview with Decoded by POLITICO, he said OpenAI and Anthropic have a fundamental difference in worldview on AI regulation.

Altman said, “we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.” He framed the tradeoff as a question of whether powerful AI should be controlled by a narrow group or made available more widely.

Business Insider reported that Anthropic has long been viewed as the industry’s strongest proponent of AI regulation, while OpenAI previously favored a lighter-touch approach. The gap has narrowed as OpenAI has backed tougher rules amid high-profile hacking incidents and rogue behavior by its models.

Altman agreed with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow development of the most advanced AI models. OpenAI has also endorsed new state laws with stricter safety requirements and a bipartisan House proposal requiring top AI companies to embed outside safety evaluators.

Altman rejected the idea that one lab should control powerful AI and distribute its benefits, calling that “a completely unacceptable tradeoff.” He also said he would not trade broad access for guarantees of zero major hacks, misuse, scams, or other harmful outcomes.

At the same time, Altman said he does not accept “the really catastrophic risks,” including the possibility of “a serious loss of control to AI.” The position separates everyday misuse concerns from the most severe failure scenarios in the AI safety debate.

The interview appeared in the debut edition of Decoded and its accompanying daily podcast. It also covered President Donald Trump’s AI accord with top tech firms, his attempted rebrand of AI to “super intelligence,” autonomous hacking incidents by OpenAI models, and whether the company should face legal liability.

The takeaway: OpenAI is moving toward more formal safety rules, but Altman is still defending a broader-access model for AI. That stance keeps the company in the center of the debate over who should control powerful AI systems and how much risk society should tolerate.