OpenAI won't go public until models are safer: Sam Altman
What's the story
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said the company won't go public until it can make better promises about model safety. The announcement comes after a string of security incidents involving OpenAI and its competitors, including Anthropic, Meta, and Google. "We intend to continue with AI progress ... but as the models have had this surge forward in capability, and we see more of that ahead of us," Altman said during a recent Q&A session.
Safety first
Safety claims crucial before IPO
Altman stressed the importance of making confident safety claims before going public. He also noted that delaying an IPO could be "bad for the world."
His comments come amid ongoing debates about whether OpenAI and its competitors can effectively manage their own creations.
The discussion was further fueled by a high-profile resignation letter from an Anthropic employee, which raised concerns about the societal risks posed by these systems.
Regulatory push
Altman's take on regulation, 'pacing the frontier'
Along with its competitors, OpenAI has called for regulation and "pacing the frontier."
However, Altman was cautious about what "pacing the frontier" really meant at DevDay.
He said it doesn't necessarily mean an outright slowdown but rather prioritizing safety and alignment over capabilities.
He also expressed concerns that going public could disappoint Wall Street supporters in the name of safety or other reasons.
Safety commitment
Altman on scaling AI safely
Altman said OpenAI would prioritize safety to "confidently scale to the next stage of AI without people debating what percent chance we're going to do all these bad things."
He added, "I don't want to put additional pressure right now as we're going through this significant change and what it's going to take to make the safety claims that we all should want us to make for these extremely capable models."