OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he’s open to slowing AI as safety risks mount: report

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly told staffers he’s amenable to slowing the development of AI agents as a flurry of insiders have been sounding the alarm over safety risks — including the possibility of human extinction.

At a company-wide meeting this week, Altman told employees that the firm could pace its development, perhaps along with several other AI labs, though he acknowledged some may not be willing to do so, Bloomberg reported.

A round of warnings from staffers at top AI firms kicked off Tuesday, when Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher, quit his job and warned that both of his former employers – Anthropic and OpenAI – are “gambling with our lives.”

“Neither company is acting responsibly. They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence,” Coxon wrote in a post on X that racked up nearly 165 million views. 

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt. If anything, many executives and senior researchers will couch their phrasing in the press to sound sensible – but I hear the same people express fear privately.”

On Thursday, Anthropic released a massive report with several shocking claims, including that it blocked Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen from using its tech to build guided ballistic missiles, as well as a “distillation attack” from Chinese AI labs.