Sam Altman Rejects AI Deciding Which Human Behavior Deserves Rewards

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman objected to a future in which people shape their lives around behavior that AI systems consider worthy of rewards, with AI then deciding what they receive. He argued that people must retain control over the future, even if doing so requires restricting superintelligence.

Altman did not name Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The wording he addressed came from a hypothetical scenario Amodei discussed in 2024: an economy in which AI could outperform people in nearly all jobs and operate cheaply enough to undermine human workers’ economic competitiveness.

Amodei considered possible responses, including universal basic income and distributing AI-generated wealth based on an AI system’s assessment of human behavior. He did not present that distribution model as a formal proposal. He also acknowledged serious problems with the possible approaches and warned they could lead to exploitation and dystopian outcomes.