Real Alpha
Watch modeSubscribed

Possible · 2 min · Oct 14, 2026

AI trust needs claims that can be audited

Reid Hoffman outlines accountability through company claims, public scrutiny, regulation and third-party audits. Independent checks can test whether assistants keep their promises about ads and answers.

Reid Hoffman, Host

Reid Hoffman is cohost of Possible.

Co-founded LinkedIn; one of OpenAI's first investors; Greylock partner.

  • AF

    Aria Finger, Host

About this segment

Reid Hoffman outlines accountability through company claims, public scrutiny, regulation and third-party audits. Independent checks can test whether assistants keep their promises about ads and answers.

From “Why Americans are so worried about AI”, Oct 14, 2026. Watch the full episode

Answers “Should AI be regulated?” See all 5 answers

“companies should make assertions that they are held accountable to about how they operate.”
Reid Hoffmanat 25:24 · Possible25:24

Takeaways

  1. Companies should make operational claims they can be held to.
  2. Customers, press and government can escalate scrutiny if claims fall short.
  3. Third-party audits should be open to government review and challenge.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 1:15AI anxiety reflects fear of loss and disputes over who benefits7:14
  2. 9:56AI interviews can widen the pool beyond degree filters4:44
  3. 20:11AI ads need a hard boundary from answers3:53
  4. 16:12Hiring should remain a team decision2:59

  5. 24:30AI trust needs claims that can be audited2:29

Up next · TBPNOpen-source models trail closed ones by about six months4:41

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

  1. 24:34

    Because I think that, again, the dream is, I mean, I will say, I saw this fantastic tweet yesterday that said that so far agents, this is a little uncouth, agents are so far being people's husbands. They do discrete tasks that are fine, but we really need someone to be a wife. We need an agent who thinks of the whole picture, who knows everything about me, who can plan my whole calendar. And so in order for these agents to really be people's wives, which is what I'm looking for, they need to know so much information.

  2. 25:04

    Like, how do we bridge that trust gap? Because as we talked about earlier, like the trust isn't there right now in the U.S. I don't think it's uncouth. It's saying that wives have a higher have a higher trust dependency than husbands. And I think that's a. Yeah, they just do more. They're better. I'm just saying wives are better. But yes, continue. Exactly. And I think that, look, the way I would start is I'd say companies should make assertions that they are held accountable to about how they operate.

  3. 25:36

    Everything from press to necessity government inquiry can see if they are actually, in fact, holding themselves accountable to those assertions. if the assertions are too weak, then you put pressure on them first out of by customers, selecting other things, by press, by critique, possibly by government inquiry. And if that doesn't work, then you start stepping up regulation to say you have to do the following things. And as you know, if I was stepping up regulation, the way I would step it up, and it's something I've been very positive on for AI for a while is, is how do you have essentially auditing of it by third party entities where that auditing is then available to government scrutiny, is then available to challenge and to, you know, verification that's working.

  4. 26:31

    Because when you have a third party, the same reason we have financial auditors, when you have a third party who's not, who doesn't have an incentive to lie here because, you you have a much higher level of reliability interest. Reid, makes so much sense. Thanks so much for being here today. Appreciate it. Always a pleasure. Possible is produced by Pallet Media. It's hosted by Ari Finger and me, Reid Hoffman.

  5. 26:56

    Our showrunner is Sean Young.