Billionaire media mogul Barry Diller doesnāt think OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is untrustworthy, despite recent reporting to the contrary. Onstage at The Wall Street Journalās āFuture of Everythingā conference this week, Diller vouched for the AI exec, who has been accused by some former colleagues and board members of being manipulative and deceptive at times. Diller, who is friendly with Altman, was responding to a question about whether or not people should put their faith in Altman to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits humanity.
In particular, he was asked about the theoretical form of AI known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which could one day outperform humans on any task. The media exec, a co-founder of Fox Broadcasting and chairman of IAC and Expedia Group, said that while he believes Altman is sincere in his pursuits, thatās not really the area of concern people should be focused on. Rather, itās the unknown consequences that will result from AI.
āOne of the big issues with AI is it goes way beyond trust,ā Diller said. āIt may be that trust is irrelevant because the things that are happening are a surprise to the people who are making those things happen. And Iāve spent a lot of time with various people whoāve been in the creation mode of AI, and they have a sense of wonder themselves.
Soā¦itās the great unknown. We donāt know. They donāt know,ā he explained.
āWe have embarked on something that is going to change almost everything. It is not under-reported. Now, whether these huge investments are going to come through ā I couldnāt care less.
Iām not invested in it, but progress is going to be made,ā Diller added. ) āBut the issue is not their stewardship. The issue is ⦠itās dealing truly with the unknown.
They donāt know what can happen once you get AGI, and weāre close to it. Weāre not there yet, but weāre getting closer and closer, quicker and quicker. And we must think about guardrails,ā Diller noted.
Plus, he warned, if humans donāt think about guardrails, then the alternative is that āanother force, an AGI force, will do it themselves. And once that happens, once you unleash that, thereās no going back,ā Diller said.




