OpenAI's Sam Altman says AI is a tool, not a 'creature'

• Sam Altman told The Advocate that one of the big misconceptions about AI is that it's a "creature."
• He views AI more as a tool and said calling AI a creature is the stuff of sci-fi movies.
• "There's still risks with tools, of course," he told the publication.

Sam Altman wants to clear the air about a popular sentiment some might have about artificial intelligence.

In an interview with The Advocate, an LGBTQ+ news publication, the OpenAI CEO said that one of the "biggest misconceptions" about AI is that it is often thought of as a "creature" rather than a "tool."

"It's a better movie plot if it's a creature in a sci-fi movie, for example. If you use ChatGPT, it's clearly a tool," he said, later adding that "the popular misconception of AI as sci-fi is very, very different from people who have been using it as a tool for a long time."

Altman recognized that the tool comes with "risks." He continued, "But they're of a different shape and a different kind of profile."

It's a bit less alarming than his earlier warnings.

The AI leader once said in 2015 that "AI will probably most likely lead to the end of the world, but in the meantime, there'll be great companies."

In October, Altman and hundreds of AI scientists signed their names to a letter from the Center for AI Safety that warned of the "extinction" risk posed by artificial intelligence.

"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," the letter said.

Still, Altman expressed optimism, as he has done before, about AI.

"I think it's great that what we're building is like a tool," he said, "because if you give humans better tools, they do these amazing things to surprise you on the upside, and that builds all this new value for all of us."

But recently, Altman has been challenged on his mission-oriented view of using AI for good.

On Friday, OpenAI cofounder Elon Musk sued Altman, arguing that the OpenAI CEO's partnership with Microsoft walks back on the startup's original mission statement of being a nonprofit organization that will use AI to benefit humanity.

"OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft," Musk's lawyers argued, adding that "under its new board, it is not just developing but is refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Altman and OpenAI CSO Jason Kwon sent a memo to staff on Friday saying, "We believe the claims in this suit may stem from Elon's regrets about not being involved with the company today."

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.