OpenAI will not go public in 2026, CEO Sam Altman said in a Fortune interview published Saturday, citing safety concerns over artificial intelligence.
When asked by Fortune whether 2026 is off the table in favor of 2027, Altman said, "I would say not 2026. Yeah, we got a lot of stuff to do, like meeting this moment of what is going to be required for safety and alignment, and how the industry and governments can work together."
Altman also suggested that OpenAI and other leading AI companies may be close to announcing an agreement to slow AI development and work together to address safety risks, Fortune reported.
Growing numbers of US lawmakers are calling for new rules to govern AI systems after dire warnings from two researchers from OpenAI rival Anthropic that rapidly progressing artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future.
Similarly, the CEO of Anthropic said Saturday that the artificial-intelligence industry should slow its fast-moving development to give safety measures time to catch up. Without such a slowdown, Dario Amodei warned that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could take over the entire internet.
(With agency inputs from Reuters and PTI)
