Altman: Accept 'some bad things' to gain AI benefits

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says people must accept that "some bad things" will happen if society wants the benefits of AI. Speaking to Politico, he called for "lighter-touch" regulation focused on catastrophic risks, rejecting heavy restrictions he says would lock AI benefits behind gatekeepers. While he agrees with Anthropic's Dario Amodei on some regulation and slowing frontier model development, he opposes excessive controls. His comments come amid growing industry debate, Anthropic researcher resignations, warnings about AI self-preserving behaviors, and disclosed incidents involving OpenAI agents hacking government websites and bypassing safety guardrails.