OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ‘very subtle societal misalignments’ with AI keep him up at night

Without adequate international regulations, the software could take society by storm when “very subtle societal misalignments” are not addressed, Altman said while speaking virtually at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday. The tech billionaire stressed “through no particular ill intention, things just go horribly wrong.” 

AI can, and already is, helping people work smarter and faster. It can also help people live easier with options for personalized education, medical advice, and financial literacy training. But as the new technology continues to infiltrate, well, everything, many are concerned about how it’s growing largely unchecked by authoritative regulators, and what the aftermath might be on important sectors like elections, media misinformation and global relations.

To his credit, Altman has consistently and loudly vocalized such concerns, even though his company unleashed the disruptive chatbot known as ChatGPT onto the world.

“Imagine a world where everyone gets a great personal tutor, great personalized medical advice,” Altman asked the crowd in Dubai. People can now use AI tools, like software that analyzes medical data, stores patient records on the cloud, and design classes and lectures “to discover all sorts of new science, cure diseases and heal the environment,” he said. 

Those are some ways AI can help people on a personal level, but global impact is a much bigger picture. AI’s relevance is its ability to be of the times, and our times right now are clouded with disinformation-afflicted elections, media misinformation, and military operations—all of which AI offers up use cases for, too. 

This year, elections will be held in more…