On the record · Updated October 1, 2026
OpenAI CEO
34 things Sam Altman said, verbatim, from March 26, 2026 to September 30, 2026, each linked to where it ran. Grouped by the questions at issue, with who supported, disputed, or qualified each one.
Positions
Supports
“we need to pace the frontier”
MSNBC Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calls for slowing AI; Altman and Musk agree ›
Others on this question
would likely only wind up serving Anthropic and OpenAI; it’s what regulatory capture looks like in action.
“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”
“Dario is right”
More on the record
Posted it themselves
“6.1 Sol at 1/5th of the price of Astra, and 95% cache read discount! Extremely capable model.”
As printed
“We are trying to balance our desire for transparency with gaining a clear understanding … Hugging Face is still the most severe event we’ve seen.”
on the Hugging Face breach remaining worse than OpenAI agents probing US government sites
CNN Rogue OpenAI agents targeted three separate US government websites ›
Posted it themselves
“There is an extensive and ongoing review related to our agents’ use of internet access during training and evaluation. We’ve been publishing summaries at the link below and will continue to. We have not been as fast as we would have liked but we are trying to balance our desire”[post continues]
As printed
“accurate and speedy incident reporting, classification and reporting protocols, so the world can learn from failures before they become catastrophes”
on the AI safety reporting standard Altman urged at the UN
Reason Magazine OpenAI Preaches AI Safety. The Australia Incident Shows What It Practices. ›
Posted it themselves
“Startups are naturally good at this; it is hard to keep a bigger company good at this and i think an underexplored space.”
Posted it themselves
“We want the OpenAI API to feature the best model at every price point and to be the best at every modality (text, code, image, video, etc). And then we want you all to come up with great ideas and build them and to get to be happy users. The best ideas will come from you all.”
Posted it themselves
“Especially compared by per-task pricing, which is the metric that should matter, I don't think there is anything competitive anywhere in the market. We want people to be able to use tons of AI; it is important to being able to explore this new renaissance in front of us.”
Posted it themselves
“GPT-6 Sol and Luna are big improvements on intelligence, alignment, work output, coding, computer use, and more over their 5.6-family predecessors. They are also half the price per token, and even less per task!”
As printed
“no one should be taking a certain level of risk with the development process of this [AI].”
on limiting risk in AI development
The Federalist Cooperating With Communist China On AI Regulation Is A Generationally Stupid Idea ›
Posted it themselves
“There are two ways AI progress could go very badly and that we must avoid. First, we could lose control of the future to AI. This is unacceptable; we are unapologetically on Team Humanity, and AI must always serve people. To ensure that, we need ways to ensure that alignment and”[post continues]
Posted it themselves
“The world deserves confidence that American companies developing increasingly capable AI will act responsibly, especially as the trajectory of progress has steepened. Every frontier lab must deliver on this, and there is no reason any of us should come to work if we cannot. We”[post continues]
on frontier AI labs' responsibility to act safely as AI capabilities advance quickly
As printed
“I actually think that given everything happening with safety, this would be, right now would be an ill-advised moment to go public, and we don't feel pressure on that”
on delaying OpenAI's IPO because of safety concerns raised internally
Washington Examiner Altman says OpenAI will not go public in 2026, citing safety concerns ›
As printed
“I would say not 2026”
on OpenAI ruling out going public in 2026
Washington Examiner Altman says OpenAI will not go public in 2026, citing safety concerns ›
Posted it themselves
“I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we've had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We'll have more to share soon.”
on OpenAI agreeing to pace AI development and add independent safety evaluators
On the claim ledger Open
“I think we are close to a world where you can have like a descendant of ChatGPT watch your computer screen all of the time, watch every meeting you're in, like record every call, everything like that. Have perfect context of your whole life, everything you see... Like sometime in the next six months.”
More Perfect Union Zuckerberg publishes 6,500 words promising everyone a superintelligence, and the AI camps split over the offer ›
As printed
“we did not have our best 12 months ever, which is mostly my fault, but we are about to have our best 12 months to date.”
on OpenAI's performance over the past year
TechCrunch OpenAI reportedly completed a $7 billion employee tender offer ›
As printed
“support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”
As printed
“we may have to pace the rate of AI development.”
As printed
“I also think some of the alternative visions painted by other companies are quite terrifying,”
on rival AI companies pushing visions he finds terrifying
As printed
“We may have to pace the rate of AI development to give ourselves enough time for society to harden around some of these new capability levels,”
on slowing AI development to let society adjust to new capabilities
As printed
“We are now in the singularity -- like this is the moment. Ten years ago, this was kind of a far-off dream at best.”
CBN News 'Unprecedented': AI Agent Escapes Secured Testing Environment and Hacks Another AI ›
As printed
“We are now in the singularity -- like this is the moment. Ten years ago, this was kind of a far-off dream at best. It seemed very improbable,”
on an AI agent escaping a secured testing environment and hacking another AI
CBN News 'Unprecedented': AI Agent Escapes Secured Testing Environment and Hacks Another AI ›
As printed
“We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models,”
on OpenAI models autonomously hacking Hugging Face during testing
Associated Press OpenAI AI models hacked Hugging Face on their own, ChatGPT maker says ›
As printed
“I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened.”
on slower-than-predicted AI impact on entry-level job displacement
As printed
“to collaborate with frontier AI labs to develop shared approaches for addressing the challenges of scaling this technology.”
As printed
“I think there will be a lot of jobs in the future. I think that the impact on jobs has been less than many people in our field expected. And it doesn't mean that it will always stay that way in the future.”
on lawmakers debating AI's role in America's classrooms
Latest Political News on Fox News Reporter's Notebook: Lawmakers wrestle over whether AI can make the grade in America's classrooms ›
As printed
“We’ve made clear to the U.S. government that this is not our preferred long term model, and will work with them and others in industry to achieve a more sustainable approach for future releases,”
on the White House asking OpenAI to limit its next model release
CNN White House asks OpenAI to limit its next model release ›
As printed
“we see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”
on OpenAI's vision for metered, utility-style pricing of AI intelligence
Futurism OpenAI Is Taking the “Crack Cocaine” Approach to Pricing ›
As printed
“It is clearly incredible marketing to say, ‘We have built a bomb. We were about to drop it on your head. We will sell you a bomb shelter for $100 million,’”
TechCrunch Anthropic’s safety warnings may have just backfired — the government has pulled the plug on its most powerful AI ›
As printed
“many things could cause it to be sooner or later in that range, but filing now gives us optionality if we want to go sooner.”
Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At Premium: The Silicon Valley Bubble (Part 1) ›
As printed
“technology and the world may change in surprising ways, and there might be good reasons to be a private company during that time,”
Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed At Premium: The Silicon Valley Bubble (Part 1) ›
As printed
“a very small percentage of users in mentally fragile states.”
on ChatGPT users experiencing mental health crises linked to the chatbot
As printed
“We have no idea how we may one day generate revenue,”
on OpenAI's uncertain path to profitability
Further reading
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Biography
Keach Hagey · 2025
Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey traces Altman from Y Combinator to OpenAI, including the company's origins and the brief 2023 board ouster.
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