The trick: Cherry-Picked Slice

Altman did say accept 'bad things' for AI.

The headline stops before the part where he refuses catastrophic risk.

Issue 366 October 202611 receipts3 min

The Guardian's headline says Sam Altman wants the world to accept 'bad things' in return for the benefits of AI.

Before you read on. Your call?

Politico, which ran the interview, quotes him saying the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology. The Guardian adds that he named hacks, misuse and scams and tied it to a lighter-touch regulatory stance.

The twist

Futurism reports that in the same interview he said he would not accept really catastrophic risks such as a serious loss of control, and called for a liability framework. Politico reports OpenAI backing tougher rules.

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The trick has a name

We call it Cherry-Picked Slice: the flattering subset, presented as the whole. You'll see it again. Learn to spot it →

Say this in tomorrow's meeting“Altman said accept hacks and scams for AI's benefits, but per Futurism he ruled out catastrophic risk and asked for liability rules.”

Receipts

Supports web.archive.org: we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.
Context web.archive.org: Asked specifically where he diverges from Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei
Context web.archive.org: with OpenAI backing tougher rules as it grapples with high-profile hacking incidents and rogue behavior by its models.
Context web.archive.org: Altman agreed with Amodei’s call last month to slow the development of the most advanced AI models.
Supports theguardian.com: Accept ‘bad things’ in return for benefits of AI, says Sam Altman
Supports theguardian.com: I do think the lighter touch regulatory stance we advocate for comes with an accepting of the fact that some bad things are going to happen as society figures out the resilience.
Supports theguardian.com: I wouldn’t take a trade of saying we will make sure there’s no major hacks, there’s no misuse of this technology, there’s zero scams or all the other bad things that will happen
Supports theguardian.com: people will do tremendously – orders of magnitude – more good stuff than bad stuff.
Context futurism.com: eventually conceding that he wouldn't accept the “really catastrophic risks,” such as experiencing a “serious loss of control to AI.”
Context futurism.com: He told Decoded that there should be a “liability framework”
Context futurism.com: if something goes wrong with our models during training, there’s going to be some version of that we need to be responsible for.

Open the Receipts Pack → What each source proves, every figure traced, and what would change our verdict.