Altman warns of “scary times ahead,” but is positive about broad future

The OpenAI CEO sat down with mindfulness expert and Buddhist monk Jack Kornfield and Soren Gordhamer for a wide-ranging conversation about AI consciousness, benefits, regulation and ethics yesterday, on a conference called Wisdom 2.0.

They discussed several interesting topics, but Altman said »There will be scary times ahead» as AI gets sharper, without mentioning the recent jobs panic specifically.

Brace for a lot of change
The notion, he said, is for OpenAI to release research previews — or incomplete models — early so that the world can think and prepare for the consequences.

— I do think things are going to change a lot, he says, and — This is going to be such a massive change to so many aspects of society, that we need the world as a whole, as many people as possible, to understand this and weigh into it.

— I think there are going to scary times ahead, he said — And there is going to be a lot of transition, [but] I’m very confident this can be managed.

— But it does mean that we are going to have to confront what I think will be one of the biggest technological changes we’ve ever had to confront, Altman says.

You can see a short video of performance here:

Sam Altman says the world must prepare together for AI’s massive impact

OpenAI releases imperfect models early so the world can see, adapt, and help shape regulations.

"there are going to be scary times ahead"

but collaboration can turn AI into much more good than bad pic.twitter.com/r5ZYEJdb8E

— Haider. (@slow_developer) June 2, 2025

–AI will be more good than bad
— There will be orders of magnitude more good than bad, he added, calling for an IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)-like entity for AI, with regulatory powers to provide ethics, prevent misuse and regulate the industry.

— ChatGPT is just a preview of things to come, says Altman, and he expects we are going to see concrete benefits from AI in the not so distant future: — I think soon we’ll see scientific progress, diseases cured, said Altman.

Wants equal access to powerful AI
More broadly, he also weighed in on what a lot of anxious people are curious about in a future alongside superintelligent AIs:

— We are heading to a place with the world where there’s more than just human intelligence, and I think it will become part of society and will kind of lift us all up.

Democracies should expand to include as many people as possible with access to AI, he also said. And he wants broad access for all, not for compute time, resources and intelligence to be hoarded by the wealthy few:

— We need to make sure everyone has access to these systems, I think. People can use it for whatever they want, they can pool it to for a problem they think is important, or it could just be that we want a share of the economic benefits.

Watch the entire conference here: