Sam Altman Says People Must Accept AI’s ‘Bad Things’ As Benefits Outweigh Costs

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says society may have to accept the harmful consequences of artificial intelligence in exchange for the technology's broader benefits, drawing fresh criticism as the industry faces mounting pressure over safety and regulation.

Altman made the comments in an interview with Politico's Decoded, where he was asked how OpenAI's approach to AI safety differs from rival Anthropic, which has pushed for greater caution as increasingly powerful models gain the ability to operate more independently.

"I think there's a lot of daylight," Altman said of the two companies' approaches. "One of the differences between us and some of the stricter AI safety people is that we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency," he added.

Altman argued for what he described as a lighter regulatory approach. "I wouldn't take a trade of saying we will make sure there's no major hacks, there's no misuse of this technology, there's zero scams," Altman said, arguing that people would ultimately do "orders of magnitude" more good with AI than harm.

The remarks quickly drew criticism from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who rejected the premise that technology executives should determine how much AI-related harm society should tolerate, saying there was "no dice" on allowing "a handful of tech oligarchs" to make that decision for everyone else.

The comments come as Florida is already challenging OpenAI in court. State Attorney General James Uthmeier has asked a judge for a temporary injunction that would, among other restrictions, bar OpenAI from developing new models without independent third-party safety guardrails and approval. The request remains pending.

The controversy comes at an especially sensitive moment for OpenAI as David Robinson, who worked on safety reports accompanying OpenAI product launches, resigned last week and said the company's "culture is broken." Robinson argued that OpenAI and other frontier AI companies are moving too quickly and relying on a trial-and-error approach that becomes increasingly dangerous as their systems grow more powerful.

OpenAI has defended its safety practices, saying it is strengthening security, expanding third-party evaluations and holding back models when risks cannot be adequately managed. The debate is unfolding as Washington moves toward an approach that relies heavily on voluntary industry safeguards rather than sweeping federal regulation.

President Donald Trump last week announced a White House agreement with major AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Nvidia and Elon Musk's xAI. The accord calls for internal safety controls, independent external evaluations and board-level oversight but does not impose legally enforceable penalties.