Sam Altman speaks for the first time about what he learned from OpenAI’s deal with the Department of Defense.
The question of whether and to what extent AI companies should cooperate with governments was one of the main questions raised by Laurie Segal, CEO of Mostly Human, in an interview from her home after covering OpenAI CEOs for more than a decade.
On an episode of his new podcast Mostly Human that aired Thursday morning, Altman told Segal that he had “miscalibrated” an atmosphere of distrust toward AI and government.
“There’s at least a vocal group of people online who don’t really believe that the government will abide by the law,” Altman told Segal. “And that feels like a very bad sign for our democracy.”
“If we don’t help them with defending America’s cyber infrastructure, if we don’t help them with the biodefense that we talked about earlier, I think that would be a really bad thing,” Altman added. “I think we need to work with the government.”
In February, OpenAI entered into a standoff with the U.S. after signing a deal with the Department of Defense to deploy its AI models on sensitive military networks. Pentagon and humanitythe day before US attacks Iran.
Protests against OpenAI continued after Altman said he would make adjustments to the agreement to ensure the technology is not used for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.
Altman wants government to take a more active role in AI
Segal told Business Insider that he first spoke to Altman long before ChatGPT’s launch, and that the number of questions and social tensions surrounding it have “fundamentally changed” because his technology is one of the most powerful in human history.
“I think what we’re feeling right now as a society is this tension between is artificial intelligence good for all of us or good for some,” she told Business Insider.
Segal said Altman was “really pissed off” by the idea that the government should play a dominant role in overseeing AI because companies like Altman are now making important decisions.
“He believes government should be more powerful,” Segal said, describing the broader political debate about whether AI labs or public agencies should shape the future of technology.
Altman told Segal: “One of the most important questions the world will have to answer next year is: Is it the AI companies or are the governments stronger? And I think it’s very important that the governments are stronger.”
Altman pointed to historical precedents for large-scale government-led initiatives that are considered huge technological advances, such as the Manhattan Project, the Apollo Program, and the Interstate Highway System.
Altman added: “Decisions about the future of the world and the most important elements of national security should be made through a democratically elected process.” “And it was not me, nor any other institute CEO, who was appointed as part of that process.”