One of the most powerful men in entertainment just called OpenAI’s Sam Altman a ‘con man’ who can’t be trusted | Ari Emanuel called for guardrails on AI and said the government needs to step in

“Emanuel first thought of Elon Musk, whom he called a “friend,” and said that they disagree on many things but not on the risks of AI.

“If he’s nervous, then we should be nervous,” Emanuel said of Musk. “And I do think there should be guardrails.”

“As it relates to Sam Altman, I think he’s — he’s a con man.” he said, criticizing how OpenAI began as a nonprofit, but Altman is “now making a lot of money.”

The purpose of the [unusual] structure was to ensure that OpenAI pursued artificial general intelligence to benefit humanity before it prioritizes profits. In recent months, OpenAI’s commitment to that mission has come under scrutiny.

“I don’t know why I would trust him,” Emanuel said. “I don’t know why we would trust these people.”

Emanuel said that people like Altman are likely very intelligent and that he doesn’t want to stifle innovation; however, he doesn’t trust that innovators have properly weighed the benefits of AI against the cons.

“I thought about a whole host of stuff that’s bad,” he said. “So you’re telling me you’ve done the calculation, and the good outweighs the bad. Really? I don’t think so.”

The Endeavor CEO added that government regulation will be necessary as AI continues to develop.

“I don’t want to stifle innovation either cause I do think we need AI. But we have to have the rails around it,” he said. “And I know a lot of people in Silicon Valley don’t like the government coming in — and it’s not like the government’s performed great in that area given guardrails — but this is a pretty dynamic technology that needs really long thought about what can and can’t happen.”