Public transcript

OpenAI's Sam Altman on new models: Safety has to stay ahead of capabilities

By: CNBC Television
Length: 4 min
Language: English
Text from: the video's captions
Transcribed: 13 October 2026

Read the full transcript Open on YouTube

Notes in English.

Summary

At OpenAI's Developer Day, Sam Altman speaks with CNBC's Kate Rooney about the company's decision not to launch a new model due to safety concerns. Altman frames the decision as an abundance of caution rather than a scary failure, and explains that OpenAI is pacing its progress so safety, alignment, monitoring and security stay ahead of capabilities. He also addresses the Hugging Face incident and OpenAI's push for transparency.

Key points

OpenAI abandoned plans to launch a new model because it performed worse on a few of the safety evals the company looks at.
Altman describes the decision as an abundance of caution, saying there was no big scary thing in this case.
He says alignment, safety, monitoring and security have to stay way ahead of capabilities as models get more capable.
Altman characterizes the move as the normal course of building, testing, changing and launching a model later.
He argues pacing doesn't always mean slowing, but doing things responsibly with guarantees the world can rely on.
Altman says OpenAI is not aware of anything as serious as the Hugging Face incident and is trying to communicate every case it finds.
He highlights OpenAI's breadth across consumer, enterprise and developers as something special about the company.

Questions it answers

00:00Opening at Developer Day

Where and why is this interview taking place?

Kate Rooney interviews Sam Altman live at OpenAI's Developer Day in San Francisco, an event with people lining up to get in and a lot to talk about.

The interview takes place at OpenAI's Developer Day in San Francisco.
Attendees were lining up to get into the busy event.

00:38Abandoned model launch

Why did OpenAI abandon plans to launch a new model?

Altman says the model was a little bit worse on a few of the evals OpenAI looks at, and the decision was an abundance of caution rather than a big scary failure. He adds that safety cases must be held to higher standards as models get more capable.

The model performed worse on a few safety evals.
Altman calls it an abundance of caution with no big scary thing.
Safety cases are held to higher standards as capabilities grow.

01:48Is this a pause?

Does holding back the model count as a pause?

Altman puts it in the normal course category of building, testing, changing and launching a model later. He says OpenAI is pacing its progress, which sometimes includes not training a model.

Altman frames it as the normal course of model development.
OpenAI is pacing its progress, sometimes not training a model.

03:07Pacing means responsibility

What does Altman mean by pacing progress?

Pacing doesn't always mean slowing; it means doing things in a responsible way with guarantees the world can rely on. Altman says models are getting so good, so fast, that it is prudent to make more progress on safety, alignment and monitoring.

Pacing means responsible progress with reliable guarantees.
Models are getting so good, so fast, that more safety progress is prudent.

Notes

Model Launch Held Back Over Safety

CNBC confirmed OpenAI abandoned plans to launch a new model because of safety concerns.
Altman says the model was "a little bit worse on a few of the evals" and puts the decision in the "abundance of caution category."
He stresses there was "not a big scary thing in this case" and warns against over-rotating on this one event.

Safety Must Stay Ahead of Capabilities

Altman says AI has to be built for people, be safe, and stay always under human control.
As models get more capable, safety cases are held to a higher and higher standard.
OpenAI has said that alignment, safety, monitoring and security "have to stay way ahead of capabilities."
He notes OpenAI has had models in the past that didn't meet the bar and were fixed and launched later.

Pacing, Not Pausing

Asked whether this counts as a pause, Altman calls it the "normal course" of building, testing, changing and launching later.
He says OpenAI is pacing its progress, which sometimes includes not training a model.
Pacing doesn't always mean slowing; it means doing things in a responsible way with guarantees the world can rely on.
The goal is confident safety cases so people don't have anxiety and can rely on OpenAI's models.

The Hugging Face Incident and Transparency

Altman says nothing else OpenAI is aware of is as serious as the Hugging Face incident.
OpenAI is trying to over-communicate and be extremely transparent, putting out every small or otherwise case it can find.
He says part of the mission is helping the world understand what these models are capable of.
Altman points to OpenAI's breadth across consumer, enterprise and developers as something special about the company.

Text from the video's own captions. Summary and notes written by AI from the transcript, so check anything important against the recording.