OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warns of AI "fraud crisis" targeting consumer accounts
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he is nervous about an imminent fraud crisis, warning that bad actors using AI to gain access to consumer accounts is coming "very, very soon."
Why it matters: Altman said society is unprepared for how quickly the technology is evolving and called for an overhaul of how consumers get into personal accounts.
What they're saying: "I am very nervous that we have an impending, significant fraud crisis," Altman told some of the nation's top Wall Street executives and economic policymakers Tuesday.
- Altman, who spoke at a banking regulatory conference hosted by the Federal Reserve, said that AI has "fully defeated" most of the ways that people authenticate who they are.
- "Society has to deal with this problem more generally," Altman said on a panel moderated by the Fed's new Wall street cop, Michelle Bowman, who was elevated to the post by Trump earlier this year.
State of play: "A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept the voiceprint as authentication for you to move a lot of money," Altman said.
- "Other people actually have tried to sort of warn people, 'Hey, just because we're not releasing the technology doesn't mean it doesn't exist,'" he said.
- "Some bad actor is going to release it — this is not a super difficult thing to do. This is coming very, very soon," Altman said, referring to efforts to fake authentication.
The big picture: Altman is in Washington, D.C., this week — appearing at the Fed's mega-bank regulation conference headquarters and Capitol Hill — to push the message that artificial intelligence will be a "democratic" good for America and its economy, Axios reported on Monday.
- Altman's appearance comes one day before President Trump is scheduled to appear at an AI-focused summit.
- The White House is also expected on Wednesday to release an "AI Action plan" that will outline a hand-off, pro-growth approach, Axios Pro scooped last week.
What to watch: Some of the nation's financial institutions are wary about plunging headfirst into AI, with regulatory hurdles to get bespoke technology approved and the risk of a trillion-dollar error.
The other side: Altman said he has been surprised by the amount of uptake from big banks.
- "Something someone said that stuck with me is 'hey we realize this is a new technology — we've got to put some new controls on it — but the risk of us not doing this ... is that we don't continue to exist as a business.'"
