OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued a stark warning, saying China could surpass the United Sates in artificial intelligence if American companies fail to act responsibly. The comments made by Altman comes after agreeing with Dario Amodei’s view that AI poses existential risks including the possibility of ‘killing all of us’. Altman also stressed that slowing development is not about stopping progress, but it is about ensuing safety and alignment and keeping pace with capabilities. In a post shared on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Altman said the wool deserves confidence that US frontier labs will act responsibly as AI progress accelerates. “Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot,” he wrote. He welcomed a federal framework for consistent safety requirements but emphasised that companies should not wait for legislation to begin implementing safeguards.OpenAI has shifted focus from deployment to safe development, introducing explicit safety cases before reinforcement learning runs expected to significantly increase capability. Altman urged other companies to adopt similar approaches and collaborate on shared standards for misalignment, monitoring, and safety. He highlighted the importance of independent auditors and consistent rules to manage frontier risk. Altman clarified that “pacing” means slowing progress, not halting it. “Progress has been rapid and will continue to be. But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs,” he said. He warned that competitive pressure should not justify recklessness or allow capabilities to outpace alignment.
Read OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s complete post here
The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly, especially as the trajectory of progress has steepened. Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot.We welcome a federal framework that sets consistent safety requirements for frontier AI. But we do not believe we need to wait for an anti-trust exemption or legislation to begin the work of providing this confidence. Consistent rules to manage frontier risk so that we can maximize the benefits are a good idea (and we are excited by ideas like independent auditors).Years ago, companies like ours developed things like Responsible Scaling Policies and Preparedness Frameworks. Those were good for that moment, and focused primarily on the deployment of completed models, not what happens during their development process.Today’s shift to focusing on safe development and evaluation will need new tools. For example, at OpenAI we now formulate explicit safety cases in advance of frontier reinforcement learning runs we expect to significantly increase capability, in addition to the safety work we have long done in advance of model releases.We hope that other companies will learn from our approaches and propose their own; we think shared standards for misalignment, monitoring, and safety will lead to better outcomes. We look forward to collaborating with our colleagues across the industry to formulate the best version of these.When we talk about “pacing”, we do not mean “stopping”. Progress has been rapid and will continue to be. But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs.Pacing will be well worth this cost; no amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness, or let capabilities get ahead of alignment and monitoring.Where we will need the help of our government is for international coordination. But first we should do what we can ourselves.
