Sam Altman exclusive: Bad things will happen - politico.eu

Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, told POLITICO Decoded that the world "should accept some bad things happening" in the name of AI development, according to an interview published by POLITICO. POLITICO ran the interview as an exclusive under the headline "Sam Altman exclusive: Bad things will happen."

POLITICO quoted Altman directly: "We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency." The words "we believe" open the quote, and "people having the agency" closes it. The sentence links the acceptance of unspecified negative outcomes to two stated benefits — the benefits of the technology, and people having agency. The excerpt does not say what the "bad things" are, does not name any incident, harm, date or figure, and does not state whether Altman offered examples during the interview.

Both the quoted sentence and the headline POLITICO placed above it use the same framing, with the headline stating that bad things "will happen" and the quote stating that the world "should accept some bad things happening." The excerpt includes no response to the remarks from other companies, researchers, regulators or governments, and no further OpenAI statement beyond the quoted words. The excerpt as published does not describe the wider subjects covered in the interview, the questions Altman was responding to, or any policy proposal attached to his comments.