2022 was all about the Metaverse. 2023 is all about Artificial Intelligence. Everyone’s talking about it and using it efficiently in daily processes. When we say this, it is thanks to ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI that AI became such a big buzzword. Sam Altman, founder and recently reinstated CEO of the AI research org and tech company, recently spoke to TIME about his November ousting, reinstatement, AI and its potential contribution to disinformation, technology’s massive future potential and more.
Altman stated that the whole November fiasco was a big learning experience not just for him but for his company as well. “We always said that some moment like this would come. I didn’t think it was going to come so soon, but I think we are stronger for having gone through it,” he said.
“It’s been extremely painful for me personally, but I just think it’s been great for OpenAI. We’ve never been more unified. As we get closer to artificial general intelligence (AGI), as the stakes increase here, the ability for the OpenAI team to operate in uncertainty and stressful times should be of interest to the world,” added Altman.
Explaining the whole scenario that led to him being fired, Altman said, “I think everybody involved in this, as we get closer and closer to super intelligence, gets more stressed and more anxious.” However, as mentioned earlier, it did prove to be a great learning exercise. What came out was “We have to make changes. We always said that we didn’t want AGI to be controlled by a small set of people, we wanted it to be democratized. And we clearly got that wrong. So I think if we don’t improve our governance structure, if we don’t improve the way we interact with the world, people shouldn’t trust OpenAI. But we’re very motivated to improve that,” he explained.
On the topic of technology having immense potential to change the future, Altman mentioned that AGI will be the most powerful piece of tech that humanity has yet invented. Specifically, when talking about democratizing access to information globally, AGI will play a pivotal role.
“If you think about the cost of intelligence and the equality of intelligence, the cost falling, the quality increasing by a lot, and what people can do with that,” said Altman. He further added that he could potentially see the world sci-fi has promised us for so long finally come to life.
Billionaire Elon Musk described OpenAI as a close-sourced, maximum profit company, effectively controlled by Microsoft. Altman said Musk was wrong on all of these topics. However, in spite of Musk’s constant attacks on OpenAI, Altman said that he was very grateful that Musk exists because he has managed to achieve some great things. The transition to electric vehicles is very important, getting to space is super important, and Altman is grateful for all of that.
“We’re definitely not maximum profit-seeking. Although, you can talk to Elon about some of his ventures. We open-source a lot and will continue to do so in the future. And, we are not controlled by Microsoft,” clarified Altman.