Barry Diller Says Trust Is Irrelevant as Sam Altman’s AGI Nears

Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller said he trusts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman personally, but argued that “trust is irrelevant” as artificial general intelligence (AGI) nears.

“Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller has offered a nuanced defense of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, saying he believes Altman is sincere and decent — but warning that trust in any individual may ultimately be irrelevant as artificial general intelligence (AGI) draws closer”

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Speaking onstage at The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” conference, Diller said “One of the big issues with AI is it goes way beyond trust,” and he framed the central concern as consequences that are not fully knowable.

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Diller added that “it may be that trust is irrelevant because the things that are happening are a surprise to the people who are making those things happen.”

He also said he believes Altman is sincere and “a decent person with good values,” while still directing attention away from character judgments.

Diller told the conference audience that the focus should shift from personal trust to systemic safeguards, saying “the issue is … it’s dealing truly with the unknown.”

He warned that “we don’t know.

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They don’t know,” describing AI development as a “great unknown” even for the people creating it.

In the same remarks, Diller said “we’re close to it.

We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer and closer, quicker and quicker,” tying urgency to the approach of AGI.

He then argued for guardrails, saying “we must think about guardrails,” and he warned that without them “another force, an AGI force, will do it themselves.”

In a separate account of the same remarks, Zamin.uz reported that Diller emphasized his good personal relationship with Altman and described him as a sincere person, while still warning that the main problem is not personal trust.

“Journalists, activists, and cultural figures in Azerbaijan began a signature campaign to spotlight the plight of Crimean political detainees”

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Zamin.uz said Diller warned that “AGI will begin to set its own rules” if humanity does not maintain control over artificial intelligence.

The TechCrunch account also placed Diller’s comments in the context of questions about whether people should put their faith in Altman to ensure AI benefits humanity.

Diller’s message, as TechCrunch quotes it, was that “The issue is not their stewardship.

The issue is … it’s dealing truly with the unknown,” and he linked that unknown to the need for guardrails as AGI approaches.