The chief executive of artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI says that the US government is waging war on crypto assets.
In a new interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that the government’s actions against digital assets are upsetting – but adds there is a clear role for regulations within the industry.
“I am very worried about how far the surveillance state could go here. But in a world where payments, for example, are no longer bags of cash but done somehow digitally – somebody, even if you’re using Bitcoin – can watch those flows. I think that’s a corruption-reducing thing…
There are many things that I’m disappointed that the US government has done recently, but the war on crypto – which is a think is like, ‘We can’t give this up so let’s control it’ – that’s the thing that makes me quite sad about the country.”
However, Altman goes on to say that he’s not anti-regulations, citing the multibillion-dollar collapse of FTX as an example of why they’re needed.
“I’m not anti-regulation. I think there’s clearly a role for it. And I also think that FTX was sort of a comically bad situation.”
Altman – who started the identity-based crypto project Worldcoin (WLD) – also says that the existence of currencies not controlled by governments like Bitcoin (BTC) is a huge technological step for mankind.
“I helped start a project called Worldcoin a few years ago. And so I’ve gotten to learn more about the space, I’m excited about it for the same reason I’m excited about Bitcoin, too. I think this idea that we have a global currency that is outside the control of the government is a super logical and important step on the tech tree.”