'Freaking Insane': Sam Altman Sparks Horror by Saying We Should 'Accept Some Bad Things Happening' for Sake of AI
Common Dreams
POLITICO Decoded (new daily newsletter and podcast), interview with Brendan Bordelon
“One of the biggest differences between us and some of the stricter... AI safety people is that we believe the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology”
Sam Altman4 October 2026- What you'll lose3/5
The bad things happen to someone.
- Condescension3/5
Safety people, recast as the 'stricter' ones.
- Tone-deafness5/5
'Accept some bad things happening', from the man selling the benefits.
- Doom3/5
Harm, accepted in advance.
- Hypocrisy2/5
From the co-founder of a lab founded to make AI safe.
Full time16 pitchforksof a possible 25
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The occasion
POLITICO Decoded (new daily newsletter and podcast), interview with Brendan Bordelon, 4 October 2026.
Context
Asked in the first edition of POLITICO's Decoded how OpenAI differs from Anthropic, whose CEO Dario Amodei has called for guardrails, Altman said OpenAI believes the technology has to be democratized and put in people's hands, and that lighter-touch regulation comes with accepting that some bad things will happen while society builds resilience.
Crowd reaction
Outrage
Common Dreams collects the reaction: Patrick Gaspard called it 'freaking insane', Joshua Topolsky wrote that it is not a reasonable position, Wajahat Ali wrote 'We have to crush these sociopaths' and Josh Marshall called for a political movement against 'this arrogant and sociopathic' stance.
- Primary source, transcript
- Common Dreams: 'Freaking Insane': Sam Altman Sparks Horror by Saying We Should 'Accept Some Bad Things Happening' for Sake of AI
- The New Republic: Sam Altman’s Personal Feelings About AI Are a Huge Distraction
- Futurism: Sam Altman Says the World Is Going to Have to Suffer for the Glories of AI
- Tom's Guide: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on AI's future: 'the world should accept some bad things happening'
- Where the exact words are printed