No one fears what he has created more than Sam Altman himself. In an interview following the release of ChatGPT-5 last year, where Altman said he “got scared” while testing a version of his AI, he also noted:
“There are moments in the history of science, where you have a group of scientists look at their creation and just say, you know: ‘What have we done?”
The Altman/OpenAI article @shawbridge linked above is long, but worth the read. It starts by saying of this impending transition to superintelligence:
At OpenAI, we believe we should navigate it through a democratic process that gives people real power to shape the AI future they want and prepare for a range of possible outcomes while building the capacity to adapt.
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While we strongly believe that AI’s benefits will far outweigh its challenges, we are clear-eyed about the risks—of jobs and entire industries being disrupted; bad actors misusing the technology; misaligned systems evading human control; governments or institutions deploying AI in ways that undermine democratic values; and power and wealth becoming more concentrated instead of more widely shared. Indeed, we highlight these risks here to raise awareness of the need for policy solutions to address them. Unless policy keeps pace with technological change, the institutions and safety nets needed to navigate this transition could fall behind. Ensuring that AI expands access, agency, and opportunity is a central challenge as we move towards superintelligence. We should aim for a future where superintelligence benefits everyone
From a rather utopian slant, the article proposes some interesting policy initiatives, such as:
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Public Wealth Fund
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Efficiency dividends
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Adaptive safety nets that work for everyone
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Portable benefits
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Pathways into human-centered work
Whether or not any of these are even feasible, they represent the conversations we must have and the need for policy solutions we must begin to shape and implement now.