Sam Altman says he is confident industry can handle AI safety itself
Chief executive of OpenAI in a one-to-one on-stage conversation
“We will get it right. I am very confident in our company’s ability, our industry’s ability to do this safely.”
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
Politico report datelined San Francisco, timestamped 5:27 PM ET on September 15, 2026 and updated at 7:08 PM. Covers the Dreamforce megaconference hosted by Marc Benioff, at which Huang, Amodei and Altman each spoke.
Before the quotation
Politico reported that Altman touted the AI industry's ability to pace itself, telling Benioff that people should trust the industry to do the right thing.
After the quotation
On the same day OpenAI publicly backed a third-party safety assessor provision in the House FRONTIER Act, which is recorded separately.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Should Washington impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Altman has separately backed federal safety requirements, which is already recorded. Here he emphasises industry self-pacing and asks for trust rather than rules, so this statement neither clearly supports nor rejects the case proposition.
- Recorded on
- Published here
Should Washington impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI?
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