What Sam Altman said about AI the day before OpenAI ousted him as CEO

Altman, of course, had much to do with that boom, caused by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT to the public late last year. Since then, he’s crisscrossed the globe talking to world leaders about the promise and perils of artificial intelligence. Indeed, for many he’s become the face of AI. 

Where exactly things go from here remains uncertain. In the latest twists, some reports suggest Altman could return to OpenAI and others suggest he’s already planning a new startup. 

But either way, his ouster feels momentous, and, given that, his last appearance as OpenAI’s CEO merits attention. It occurred on Thursday at the APEC CEO summit in San Francisco. The beleaguered city, where OpenAI is based, hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit this week, having first  cleared away embarrassing encampments of homeless people (though it still suffered embarrassment when robbers stole a Czech news crew’s equipment).

Altman answered questions onstage from, somewhat ironically, moderator Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of the late Apple cofounder. She asked Altman how policymakers can strike the right balance between regulating AI companies while also being open to evolving as the technology itself evolves.

Altman started by noting that he’d had dinner this summer with historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, who has issued stark warnings about the dangers of artificial intelligence to democracies, even suggesting tech executives should face 20 years in jail for letting AI bots sneakily pass as humans. 

The Sapiens author, Altman said, “was very concerned, and I understand it. I really do understand why if you have not been closely tracking the field, it feels like…