Here's What 'Terrifies' OpenAI's CEO About Financial Institutions Today: 'This Is a Huge Deal' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that society is going to have to change the way it verifies identity in response to AI.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the $300 billion startup behind ChatGPT.
- At an event on Tuesday, Altman said banks that still use voice authentication "terrify" him because of the existence of AI voice cloning technology.
- He also said a possible financial attack on the U.S. keeps him up at night.
Sam Altman, the CEO of $300 billion AI startup OpenAI, is asking finance industry leaders to stay ahead of AI trends — and to avoid voice authentication at all costs.
At the Federal Reserve's Regulatory Capital Framework Conference on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Altman told a crowd of financial regulators and industry experts that "a thing that terrifies" him is banks that still accept voices to authenticate identity. AI voice cloning hoaxes can copy a person's voice in three seconds and use the cloned voice to empty bank accounts.
"A thing that terrifies me is apparently there are still some financial institutions that will accept a voice print as authentication for you to move a lot of money or do something else," Altman said at the event, per Business Insider.
Related: I Called Klarna's New AI Hotline to Talk to the Company's 'CEO' — Here's What Happened
Altman said voice authentication was "a crazy thing to still be doing" and that AI has "fully defeated" many ways financial institutions currently confirm identity.
He also warned that AI has the potential to cause a "significant impending fraud crisis," and predicted that institutions are going to have to transform the way they verify identity in response.
"People are going to have to change the way they interact," Altman said. "They're going to have to change the way they verify. This is a huge deal."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the Federal Reserve's Regulatory Capital Framework Conference on Tuesday. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
During a Q&A session at the Federal Reserve event, Altman was also asked about what keeps him up at night. He said a widespread financial crisis where an adversary uses AI to launch an attack on the U.S. The bad actor could "break into financial systems and take everyone's money," and there would be little we could do about it, Altman said. It would be difficult to uphold protective measures against an adversary with smarter AI, Altman explained.
Related: Nearly Half of Americans Think They Could Be Duped By AI. Here's What They're Worried About.
Altman's fears that AI could be misused in the wrong hands are echoed by financial leaders. According to a survey released in March by consulting firm Accenture, 80% of bank cybersecurity leaders state that AI allows bad actors to launch attacks faster than banks can respond. In other words, the leaders can't keep up with the rapid pace of AI scams targeting personal bank accounts.
Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, a 25% increase from the previous year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. More people fell for scams and lost money to them last year, with $2.95 billion lost to imposter scams.
Still, some top executives at OpenAI are convinced it has the power to do a lot of good, from eradicating diseases to helping support equal pay initiatives.
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