OpenAI boss Sam Altman has warned people could be left with “no freedom”, “no agency” and “no privacy” in an AI-controlled future.
The 39-year-old tech mogul described the dystopian prediction during a conversation with Y Combinator’s Garry Tan at Startup School 2026 in San Francisco last weekend.
The two-day gathering was held on July 25 and 26 and brought together thousands of technology movers and shakers across the globe.
When asked what life could look like under superintelligence, Mr Altman – who co-founded the multibillion-dollar company behind ChatGPT – said humanity would “probably be mostly okay”, but warned of one outcome.
“I’m particularly nervous about 10 years from now if we overreact to AI safety. And so we say, look, everyone, you’re going to get a cure for cancer, you’re going to have material abundance, but you will have no freedom, you will have no agency, it will be a perfect surveillance state.
“There will be no privacy. And that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get great comfort, but there will be nothing left in the world for you to really do. Nothing that really matters.
“You’ll just kind of live at the service of the AI giving you material wealth. I’d really like to avoid that,” he said.
Mr Altman added that societies could easily accept temporary trade-offs, arguing freedom and individual agency should increase each year as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful.
The remarks sparked widespread debate after segments of Mr Altman’s speech were shared online.
One clip attracted over 6000 comments, with many interpreting the comments as a prediction or endorsement of the future Mr Altman described.
“Notice how it’s all ‘you’ and not ‘we’?,” one comment, liked more than 100,000 times, read.
“I’m confused, is this a selling point or?” said another.
Others urged viewers to watch the conference in its entirety, noting Mr Altman had raised the scenario as an example of a future that should be prevented.
During the speech, Mr Altman further warned AI could distribute power more widely than ever before or concentrate it to an unprecedented degree.
The CEO said it would be dangerous for one company, person or AI model to wield overwhelming power, arguing people should not be locked into a single organisation’s moral worldview.
Mr Altman also predicted AI models would improve rapidly, saying progress over the next six months could feel comparable to that recorded over the previous two years.
It comes just days after the billionaire was brutally roasted online after appearing to suggest parents turn to AI to help understand their children.
“Connect your family calendars and explain your kids’ interests,” Mr Altman wrote to his audience.
“Every morning on the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc.”
Within minutes, the comment section erupted with fed-up parents and critics offering the Silicon Valley pioneer a collective reality check – reminding him that a low-tech, time-tested solution already exists.
“What if you just talked to your children?” Alex Hirsch, the American animator behind television series Gravity Falls, asked.
“Or the parents could just have a conversation with the kids about those things,” said another.
“Children’s affairs require careful attention, and your current models cannot match children’s creative thinking,” echoed a third.
Mr Altman, who welcomed his first child via surrogate with husband Oliver Mulherin earlier this year, has touted the revolutionary potential of AI across every facet of human life.
However, child psychologists and parenting experts have frequently warned against relying on screens and algorithms to mediate parent-child relationships, emphasising that non-verbal cues, mistakes, and face-to-face connection are crucial for emotional development.