OpenAI boss Sam Altman thinks people should have more faith in his company and others like it to do the right thing when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) development amid rising public concerns about all the risks.

"The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it's the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this," Altman said on Tuesday during a conference in San Francisco.

However, Altman noted that people were justified in their fears around AI, as the capability of the tools has progressed rapidly.

Speaking in Washington meanwhile, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon have both called for greater governance of AI.

Altman's comments came during an appearance at an annual conference hosted by software firm Salesforce.

"It doesn't take as much imagination as it used to for [us] to imagine how this could go wrong," he said. "I think the world is right to be afraid of this."

It was the first time he had spoken publicly since a post went viral last week by a researcher who quit the AI firm Anthropic. The researcher claimed AI could kill all humans by the end of the decade if left unchecked.

A handful of other AI executives and experts responded by saying they agreed with the assessment, though they didn't explain how they came to their conclusions or how exactly AI could accomplish such a thing.