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OpenAI Warns of 'Potentially Catastrophic' Superintelligence Risk, Outlines Safety Push

OpenAI pairs near-term capability forecasts with a call for common safeguards, empirical testing, government coordination.

Overview

  • The company projects AI systems capable of very small scientific discoveries by 2026 and more significant breakthroughs by 2028.
  • It argues current models already outperform top humans in some intellectual competitions as the cost of a given intelligence level has fallen about 40x per year.
  • OpenAI urges frontier labs to adopt shared safety principles and to build an AI resilience ecosystem modeled on cybersecurity and building codes.
  • The plan emphasizes empirical alignment research with the option to slow development near thresholds like recursive self-improvement, and it warns against deploying systems that cannot be robustly controlled.
  • OpenAI calls for collaboration with national governments and safety institutes on high‑risk areas such as AI-enabled bioterrorism and proposes ongoing impact measurement, noting difficult economic transitions ahead.