OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has acknowledged that public concern over the pace of artificial intelligence advancement is understandable, while calling on the public to place confidence in AI companies to keep safety at the forefront as the technology grows more capable.

Speaking at a San Francisco conference, Altman said the industry understood the weight of its responsibilities and would act accordingly. He stated that fears surrounding artificial intelligence were warranted, noting that potential failure scenarios had become easier to envision — remarks that arrived as debate intensified over whether AI developers should operate under self-imposed standards or be subject to formal government regulation.

Those were the first public remarks from Altman following the widespread circulation on social media of a post by a former researcher at AI company Anthropic. The researcher cautioned that artificial intelligence posed a potential existential threat to humanity within the next ten years if its advancement proceeded without adequate oversight. A number of AI industry leaders and specialists voiced agreement with that view.

Those developments have prompted heightened scrutiny of the sector's swift expansion. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has called for a deceleration in the advancement of artificial intelligence and pressed governments to introduce oversight of the industry. Those remarks drew backing from Altman, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, and Elon Musk, who heads both X and the AI assistant Grok.

Altman expressed the view that AI firms were capable of handling the associated risks without external oversight, stating that he held strong belief in both his own company's and the broader industry's capacity to proceed responsibly. He called on companies to ensure that safety and alignment measures kept pace with advancing AI capabilities, and to halt or reduce development if they were unable to meet that standard.

At a Washington conference, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and political commentator Steve Bannon voiced agreement on the need for expanded oversight measures. Sanders raised concerns about whether authority over artificial intelligence development should rest with a narrow circle of wealthy technology industry leaders, arguing that broader public input is needed in shaping those decisions.

Bannon questioned whether the industry could oversee itself, contending that those who control major technology platforms cannot be trusted to act honestly. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, meanwhile, has maintained that AI developers possess both the capacity and the motivation to improve the safety of their systems.

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said AI firms themselves bear responsibility for determining whether new models meet adequate safety standards before release, describing safety as the top priority. In his view, tackling safety is primarily an engineering challenge. Huang added that any AI firm lacking confidence in a product's readiness ought to delay its launch.