OpenAI boss says world 'right to be afraid' but should trust AI firms

What the report says

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman used a conference appearance in San Francisco to argue that the public has reason to fear artificial intelligence, while also urging people to trust AI companies to handle the technology responsibly. According to the BBC World News report, Altman said the pace of AI progress has made it easier to imagine serious misuse, but he maintained that firms such as OpenAI would do the right thing because it is in their interest and because of the scale of the risks.

The comments came amid a wider wave of concern over whether AI should be left to industry self-regulation or subject to stronger government oversight. The BBC said that at the same time, political figures including Senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon were calling for tighter control, while some industry leaders backed the idea that companies should set their own safety limits. Sanders criticized the concentration of decision-making in the hands of a small number of wealthy technology leaders.

The report also noted that Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has urged a slowdown in AI development and called for government regulation, while OpenAI and other labs are discussing voluntary safety standards. Supporters of self-regulation, including executives from Meta and Nvidia, argued that labs have strong incentives to build safer systems and avoid releasing harmful products. The debate matters because AI tools are spreading quickly into business and public life, intensifying questions about safety, accountability and who should decide how fast the technology advances.