❯ Altman says the world should accept “some bad things” for AI’s benefits, openly parting ways with Anthropic on regulation

"Accept some bad things"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico’s Decoded: “We believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.” As relayed by Shattered, he said he would not take a trade that guaranteed no major hacks, no misuse and zero scams, because people will do orders of magnitude more good than bad with AI.

Where it differs from AnthropicAltman said he understands but disagrees with the view that the technology will become so powerful that “a single lab in San Francisco should have it.” As relayed by Seeking Alpha, Anthropic advocates stronger safeguards for the most advanced models, and CEO Dario Amodei has called for slowing development of the most capable systems. Anthropic counters that the rules it backs apply only to frontier models and would not entrench large developers.

A narrowing gap and a shared limitThe reports also note the gap is closing: OpenAI recently supported state safety laws and bipartisan House proposals and agreed to slow development. Altman drew a line as well, saying he does not accept risks involving “a serious loss of control to AI.” The FTC is currently looking into how both companies secure AI agents, and the White House AI accord requires outside audits.

Who defines the user's agencyThe practical meaning is that OpenAI will keep opening capable models and agents to more people and treat some misuse as a bearable cost. Those most affected are third parties harmed by agents: they did not choose to use AI, yet they bear the “bad things.”

▪ SIGNALBoth leading labs agree on slowing the most powerful models, and the disagreement is down to one question: whether losses from ordinary misuse are a price worth paying for broad access.