Altman says religious framing of AI is 'a real safety issue'
Sam Altman says he is "very uncomfortable" when people ascribe religious force to AI models, three years after he described OpenAI's goal as "magic intelligence in the sky."
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said he feels "very uncomfortable" when people "ascribe religious force or a surrender of human judgment to AI models," and called the habit "a real safety issue," The Decoder reported on 3 October. The outlet did not say where Altman made the remarks, and the material this report found carries only the quoted lines.
The Decoder notes the stance sits oddly with Altman's own earlier language. As recently as 2024, it says, he spoke of building "magic intelligence in the sky" and of feeling on the side of the angels. The outlet frames the new comments as a shift in tone, which is its reading rather than anything Altman has said about his past remarks.
The comments follow a New York Times report on Anthropic's private meetings with religious thinkers about Claude's possible consciousness and moral development, according to The Decoder. They also follow a statement by Pope Leo XIV that algorithms lack the spark of humanity. The Decoder does not say Altman named Anthropic, and the link is the outlet's inference.
Commentator kimmonismus read the remark as a jab at Anthropic, writing on X that it was a "based Sam take" he could not agree with more. That is one observer's interpretation. This report has not seen the New York Times article, and neither Anthropic nor OpenAI has commented on the exchange in the sources reviewed.
https://x.com/kimmonismus/status/2106485554137448528