Sam Altman says world is 'right to be afraid' of AI — but urges trust in companies to self-regulate

Sam Altman stood before a Salesforce audience in San Francisco on Tuesday and said something few tech CEOs say out loud: the world is right to be scared of what his industry is building. Then he asked that same world to trust him anyway.

Speaking at Salesforce's Dreamforce 2026 conference, the OpenAI CEO was quizzed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on recent controversies in AI — including a widely-reported hack of AI platform Hugging Face and mounting calls for tighter regulation. Altman's answers were candid about the risks and bullish about the industry's ability to manage them.

The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it's the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this. It doesn't take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong. I think the world is right to be afraid of this.— Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

Altman pointed to the Hugging Face incident — which he described as 'obviously a terrifying incident' — as a moment that has sharpened public awareness of what AI systems are capable of, according to TechRadar. He also flagged a specific economic fear: that some AI companies could accumulate enough power to influence entire economies.

I think the world is right to be afraid of this.— Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

Despite those warnings, Altman argued that the solution lies within the industry itself. He said companies should keep alignment and safety 'way ahead of capabilities' and that if they could not, they would 'slow down or stop.' He expressed confidence that OpenAI and its peers could essentially regulate themselves.

We will get it right, I'm very confident in our company's and industry's ability to do this safely.— Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

Altman's remarks land in the middle of a rapidly escalating industry debate. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently called on the AI sector to slow the pace of capability improvements, writing: 'We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.' Altman said he agreed with Amodei on the 'need to pace the frontier.' Elon Musk echoed that, saying simply, 'Dario is right,' according to WION News.

Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the 'godfather of AI,' also backed Amodei's position, calling his warning 'very sensible' and noting that practically nobody knows whether AI can be kept under control, according to WION News. A former Anthropic and OpenAI employee, Jacob Coxon, separately claimed in a post that researchers at both firms 'believe AI could kill all humans.'

The political response has been sharply divided. US President Donald Trump dismissed AI safety concerns as a 'hoax' comparable to climate change, telling reporters at his golf club in Doonbeg, Ireland: 'Whoever wins AI, wins.' He argued that negative forces were raising fears about things 'that won't happen,' and posted on Truth Social that the only guardrails AI needed were a 'STRONG AND SMART' president. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the safety warnings 'fearmongering,' with spokesperson Guo Jiakun saying at a press conference that 'confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance.'

Altman also used the Dreamforce session to look ahead. He told Benioff that OpenAI had only 'scratched the surface of building great products' in pursuit of its mission to achieve artificial general intelligence, and predicted 'more technological wonders by 2030.' He described the ability to talk to a computer that understands your intent and takes action as 'one of the most profound changes to how we use technology that I've ever seen,' according to TechRadar.

I think people, with this technology in their hands, can live a much better version of their lives.— Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI

Separately, Altman this week announced that OpenAI will not pursue an initial public offering in 2026. In an interview with Fortune, he cited AI safety and alignment concerns as the primary reason, saying: 'I actually think that, given everything happening with safety, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that.' The decision underlines how central the safety debate has become — not just to public discourse, but to OpenAI's own strategic planning.

Why it matters — The CEO of the world's most prominent AI company is simultaneously validating public fear about AI and arguing the industry should be trusted to police itself — a position that sits at the centre of a global debate about who, if anyone, controls where this technology goes.

Sources differ on Whether AI safety risks are real and serious: The risks are real; development should slow — agreed by Altman, Amodei, Musk, and Hinton (wionews.com) vs Safety fears are a 'hoax' comparable to climate change — US President Donald Trump (wionews.com) vs Safety warnings are 'fearmongering' — China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (wionews.com)

Reported by wionews.com, thenextweb.com, techradar.com