OpenAI CEO urges U.S. to prepare for AI ‘superintelligence’ risks and gains

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said U.S. policymakers must act now to prepare for advanced artificial intelligence, warning that the technology is moving from theory into daily economic use.

In an interview with Axios, Altman said AI systems already handle coding and research tasks that once required teams of programmers. Newer models will go further, he said, helping scientists make major discoveries and allowing individuals to do the work of entire groups.

That shift is already visible in cybersecurity, where some industry leaders say artificial intelligence is tilting the balance toward attackers.

Charles Guillemet, chief technology officer at hardware wallet maker Ledger, for example, told CoinDesk that AI tools are lowering the cost and skill needed to find and exploit software flaws. Tasks that once took months, such as reverse-engineering code or linking multiple vulnerabilities, can now be completed in seconds with the right prompts.

The crypto industry saw more than $1.4 billion in assets stolen or lost in attacks last year. That figure could keep growing, Guillemet suggested. Moreover, developers are increasingly relying on AI-generated code, which may potentially introduce new flaws at scale.

The response, he said, will require stronger defenses such as mathematically verified code, hardware devices that keep private keys offline and a broader recognition that systems can fail.

AI in cyber, biosecurity

While Altman noted that AI could speed up drug discovery or materials science, he also flagged that it could also enable more powerful cyberattacks and lower the barrier to harmful biological research. Such threats may emerge within a year, which makes coordination across government, tech firms and security groups urgent.

“We’re not that far away from a world where there are incredibly capable open-source models that are very good at biology,” he said. “The need for society to be resilient to terrorist groups using these models to try to create novel pathogens is no longer a theoretical thing.”

Another example he suggested was a “world-shaking cyberattack” that could occur as early as this year. Avoiding that, he said, would require a “tremendous amount of work.”

He framed OpenAI’s policy ideas as a starting point, aiming to push debate on how to manage systems that learn fast and act across many fields. Using AI to help defend against these potential attacks, he said, is important.

On the potential nationalization of OpenAI, Altman said the case against it relies on the need for the U.S. to achieve “superintelligence” before its rivals do.

“The biggest case against nationalization would be that we need the U.S. to succeed at building superintelligence in a way that is aligned with the democratic values of the United States before somebody else does,” he said. “That probably wouldn’t work as a government project, I think that’s a sad thing.”

Still, Altman said he believes companies involved in AI must work closely with the U.S. government.

Given his role at OpenAI, Altman also has a financial stake in how the sector evolves. That position may shape how he frames both the urgency of regulation and the role of private companies like OpenAI in managing emerging risks, which could influence the firm’s competitive standing.

AI as a utility

Energy is one area where he sees quick progress because greater processing power capacity could keep costs down as AI demand grows.

Altman also pointed to early signs of labor shifts. A programmer in 2026, he said, already works differently to one a year earlier.

AI will become a sort of utility, like electricity, embedded across devices while the cost of basic intelligence falls and top systems remain expensive.

“You will have this personal super assistant running in the cloud,” Altman said. “If you use it a lot or use it at high levels of intelligence you’ll have a higher bill one month and if you use it less, you’ll have a lower bill.”

It’s “incredibly important that people building AI are high integrity, trustworthy people.”