Sam Altman says AI industry has ‘not done a very good job’ explaining the technology’s benefits to the public

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a podcast released on Sunday that leaders in the artificial intelligence industry have not done a good job explaining the technology’s benefits to the public amid rising backlash against the industry and data center construction.“I think it’s probably a good feature of human society that we have some built-in inertia; we have some skepticism of rapid change,” Altman said while discussing the public’s mistrust of AI with podcast host David Senra. “I think that probably helps society in times of turmoil or times of, you know, localized craziness or whatever, so, some of it’s probably good.” “I also think a lot of the people building AI, you know, have been off saying there’s a 25% chance we’re going to destroy the world and we’re going to race ahead to do it because otherwise those bad guys will do it first,” Altman explained, referring to the risk of the Chinese Communist Party winning the AI race. “Or, you know, it’s like, man, this thing is going to be really terrible, and there’s going to be 50% of the jobs are going to go away in the next year, and we hope you all are OK, but it seems really scary. Like, we have not, as a field, done a very good job of explaining to people what the benefits are and how the downsides can be mitigated.”Altman’s comments come after a week in which the AI industry encountered new resistance following Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) decision to sign an executive order on Tuesday outlining new requirements to restrict data center development in Pennsylvania, which he said are the most stringent in the country. The announcement follows Gov. Greg Abbot (R-TX) signing a similar order earlier in the month that imposes a moratorium on construction until state regulators audit the sites’ plans to connect to the local electric grid. Though nationwide data center moratoriums and other federal efforts to regulate AI have been proposed and largely supported by Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), growing public opposition has also led some Republicans to turn against data center development.A National Republican Senatorial Committee memo obtained by Axios last week warned that Democrats were taking advantage of data centers’ unpopularity in nationwide races, particularly in Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-OH) race against Sherrod Brown. The Republican Senate candidate in Michigan, Mike Rogers, also backed a pause in data center construction last week. “And we certainly have not done a good job, even if people have had answers like saying there’s going to be universal basic income or work will be optional or whatever,” Altman said. “There’s been very little discussion from people about how and why it’s important that people have more power and personal freedom in the world, not less. And that matters a lot to most people. The ability of people to influence their own future and collectively to design kind of where society is going to go and the autonomy that comes with that, is very important.”JOSH SHAPIRO SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER RESTRICTING DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENT IN PENNSYLVANIAThe 50% statistic Altman referenced stems from a comment by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in late May, when he warned that AI could wipe out half of all white-collar jobs. The public has cited concerns about job displacement and data centers’ effects on local electricity prices and the environment as reasons for wanting more federal oversight of the emerging technology.Supporters of data center construction point to local job creation and tax revenue, the need to preserve the lead in the AI race, and the Trump administration’s ratepayer protection pledge, which requires technology companies to pay for their own electricity. Many Republicans and some centrist Democrats have maintained their pro-data-center stances despite the recent renewed backlash.