Sam Altman says AI power concentration is “a terrifying thing”
garrytan · x · 2026-07-29
In an excerpt from a conversation with Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Sam Altman says concentration of power around AI is “a terrifying thing.”
Altman argues that many safety concerns are genuine, but some are really about a small group trying to centralize control. He says he does not want a world of AI overlords where a few people make decisions for everyone in exchange for big promises like curing cancer.
He also warns against using the real risks of AI as a justification for keeping the technology in the hands of only a narrow group. His broader point is that the internet’s open, rule-light spirit mattered, and that spirit should be preserved for AI as well. The podcast also touches on compute bets, open source, the Hugging Face incident, jobs, robotics, and what happens after AGI.
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