Sam Altman

Development of superhuman machine intelligence (SMI) [1] is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity. There are other threats that I think are more certain to happen (for example, an engineered virus with a long incubation ... more AI Verified source (2015)

Once you see AGI you can't unsee it. It has a real 'ring of power' dynamic to it, and makes people do crazy things. I don't mean that AGI is the ring itself, but instead the totalizing philosophy of 'being the one to control AGI'. [...] The only solu... more AI Verified source (2026)

When the frontier models are in the hands of pretty responsible companies, I think we can mitigate [risks] by the companies aligning their models and having good classifiers and good safety stacks. AI Unverifiable source (2026)

Power in the future can either be held by a small handful of companies using and controlling superintelligence, or it can be held in a decentralized way by people. We believe the latter is much better [...] We will resist the potential of this techno... more AI Verified source (2026)

We talk about the IAEA as a model where the world has said 'OK, very dangerous technology, let's all put some guard rails.' AI Verified source (2023)

If AGI is successfully created, this technology could help us elevate humanity by increasing abundance, turbocharging the global economy, and aiding in the discovery of new scientific knowledge that changes the limits of possibility. AGI has the pote... more AI Verified source (2023)

OpenAI is not a normal company and never will be. Our mission is to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. When we started OpenAI, we did not have a detailed sense for how we were going to accomplish our mission. ... more AI Unverifiable source (2025)

I believe AI can be conscious. [...] First of all, I am conscious. Second of all, display capability of suffering. Unverified source

But then there is a long continuation from what we call AGI to what we call Superintelligence. AI Verified source (2024)

If it's hard in many of our current jobs to outwork a GPU, then that [power balance between labor and capital] changes. [...] The next few years are going to be a painful adjustment. Verified source (2026)

Capitalism has also depended on somewhat of a power balance between labor and capital, but if it's hard in many of our current jobs to outwork a GPU, then that changes. [...] If there was an easy consensus answer, we'd have done it by now, so I don't... more AI Verified source (2026)