https://www.politico.com/news/2026/10/04/sam-altman-decoded-interview-ai-01106217
Sam Altman: “we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”
Which people? Not the artists, writers, coders and musicians whose work was plundered, nor the people in poor communities who have data centers forced upon them by politicians who don't shave to deal with the noise, pollution and resource drain. Not the people whose retirement funds bought in to SpaceXAi by default so now have to pray the bubble doesn't burst too violently, nor the people faced with not getting to retire as AI is denying them medical care. Not the graduates being denied the first step on the ladder because employers hope AI will do all their jobs, nor the veteran employees who are pushed out for saying 'no it can't'. Not the civilians in Palestine, Iran and Lebanon getting bombed into oblivion because AI now gives them a new excuse for targeting civilians, nor the billions of people now being tracked for having the wrong political beliefs or skin colour. Not the people struggling to make ends meet as corporations use AI to fix prices of everything from food to housing, and the people whose existence is now threatened because AI companies are pouring money into the campaign's of absolute nightmare creatures in order to block anyone fixing the problems they create...
The only people he wants to have agency is people like him, his public statements and his personal life show he cares nothing about consent on any level, none of them do, and the benefits will always be coming ten years down the road, much like Trumpism and Brexit. This is a deeply selfish man representing an industry of nothing but pure, distilled greed, seeing people getting angrier and angrier at him, hoping that he can quell that anger long enough he can take over government policy on his field entirely, cash out, or both.