SAN FRANCISCO, United States – OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the public is justified in worrying about artificial intelligence but argued that people should also have confidence in the developers building increasingly capable systems.
Altman made the remarks as governments, technology companies and researchers continue debating how to manage AI risks while allowing development to continue. His comments reflect a broader tension within the industry between acknowledging potential harms and maintaining public confidence in the companies developing the technology.
Altman has previously described advanced AI as carrying significant risks while maintaining that continued development can produce substantial benefits if appropriate safeguards are established.
Altman acknowledges public concerns
Altman’s position does not dismiss fear of AI as irrational. Instead, he has argued that concern is an understandable response to technology whose capabilities are advancing rapidly and whose long-term effects remain uncertain.
OpenAI has faced growing scrutiny over the safety of its systems, including questions about how advanced models should be tested, what restrictions should apply to their deployment and how companies should respond when models can perform increasingly complex tasks.
The company has also been involved in debates over the balance between releasing powerful AI products and maintaining safeguards around their use.
Altman’s latest comments place public trust alongside technical safety as part of that challenge.
Trust remains a difficult issue for AI companies
For AI developers, public confidence can affect how quickly new systems are adopted in workplaces, schools and consumer products.
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But trust is not simply a matter of reassurance. It also depends on whether companies can demonstrate that their safety claims are supported by testing, monitoring and transparent reporting.
OpenAI and other AI companies have introduced safety evaluations and policies intended to identify harmful capabilities before systems are widely deployed. Researchers outside the companies have also developed independent methods for evaluating AI risks.
Those approaches do not eliminate uncertainty. They instead provide mechanisms for identifying problems and limiting some forms of misuse.
AI development continues despite safety concerns
The debate comes as AI systems are being used for increasingly broad tasks, from writing and coding to research, data analysis and automated decision-making.
The expansion has increased attention on risks including misinformation, cyber abuse, privacy violations and the possibility that increasingly autonomous systems could be used in harmful ways.
At the same time, developers argue that restricting AI development too aggressively could prevent useful applications and leave technological progress concentrated in fewer companies or countries.
That tension has become especially visible in the competition between the United States and China, where both governments view advanced AI as strategically important.
Regulation remains unsettled
Governments have taken different approaches to the question of how AI should be regulated.
The European Union has established a comprehensive regulatory framework through the AI Act, while the United States has pursued a combination of federal policies, agency action, voluntary industry commitments and state-level laws.
China has also introduced rules governing areas including generative AI and algorithmic recommendation systems.
The differences reflect competing approaches to issues such as transparency, safety testing, data use and responsibility for harms caused by AI systems.
For developers such as OpenAI, the regulatory environment is becoming an increasingly important part of product development and deployment.
The challenge is demonstrating trust
Altman’s remarks acknowledge two realities that increasingly shape the AI debate: people have legitimate reasons to be concerned about increasingly capable systems, and society will still have to decide how much responsibility to place on the companies building them.
Public trust cannot substitute for technical safeguards, independent oversight or clear accountability. Likewise, safety requirements do not necessarily resolve every question surrounding rapidly changing AI capabilities.
The balance between those considerations will continue to shape how governments regulate artificial intelligence and how companies such as OpenAI develop their systems.
Reporting Credit: OpenAI — statements and policies concerning AI development and safety; European Union institutions — AI Act and regulatory framework; U.S. government agencies — federal AI policy and safety initiatives; Chinese regulatory authorities — rules governing artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems.
