The harm budget just got line items. sam altman told politico on oct 4 that society should accept…
the harm budget just got line items. sam altman told politico on oct 4 that society should accept some bad things from ai, naming hacks and scams, in exchange for the benefits.
the cost side of the ledger is now public.
Context
POLITICO's Decoded interview, published Oct 4, 2026, quotes OpenAI CEO Sam Altman saying 'the world should accept some bad things happening' for the benefits of AI. The Verge reports he pointed to hacks, scams and other bad things as costs society should expect to tolerate.
POLITICO Europe says he sought to distinguish his policy stance from rival developer Anthropic.
The Oct 4 interview, the hacks and scams examples and the trade of harms for benefits match POLITICO and The Verge. 'Harm budget' and 'line items' are the author's framing; Altman is quoted as saying the world should accept some bad things, not budgeting them.
'the cost side of the ledger is now public' is the author's opinion.
Related work
- POLITICO: Sam Altman to Decoded ↗Interview.
- The Verge: Sam Altman says some bad things will happen ↗Coverage.
- POLITICO Europe: Sam Altman to Decoded ↗Policy stance.
Watch next
- Read the full Decoded interview for the context of the quote.
Sources
- POLITICO, Oct 4, 2026politico.com
- The Verge, Oct 5, 2026theverge.com
- POLITICO Europe, Oct 4, 2026politico.eu
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 11 October 2026 at 01:40 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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