Sam Altman Founder of OpenAI Embracing the Era of AI for a Prosperous New Chapter in Human Intelligence
In the coming decades, we will be able to achieve many things that seem like magic to our grandparents. With the rapid advancement of technology, we are on the verge of an intelligence revolution, with artificial intelligence (AI) as the core driving force of this transformation. Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, discussed these changes and their profound impact on society and the future of humanity.
Table of Contents:
AI will boost human progress
How AI will change work and learning
Shared prosperity: Beyond today’s wealth
A leap in human intelligence: The era of superintelligence
The key to success lies in deep learning
How AI will impact future society
Ensuring the widespread use of AI
Looking ahead: A bright future in the age of intelligence
Sam Altman believes that human progress is not a new phenomenon, but it is currently accelerating. The achievements we can attain have far surpassed the imagination of our ancestors. This advancement is not due to genetic changes but rather the continuous improvement of social infrastructure, enabling each individual to harness intelligence more powerful than that of a single person.
Our grandparents and earlier generations have laid a solid foundation for human progress. Today, artificial intelligence is providing us with tools to solve difficult problems, further driving progress, and building better social structures for future generations. In the future, our children will be able to achieve accomplishments that we cannot even imagine.
Sam Altman argues that this process will not happen overnight, but we will soon be able to collaborate with AI to accomplish tasks that we could not independently complete in the past. Eventually, each of us may have a personalized AI team of virtual experts who can work together in various fields, helping us realize almost any imaginable creative idea. For the next generation, AI mentors can provide personalized instruction in any subject, language, or at a pace tailored to the learner’s needs.
Furthermore, fields such as healthcare and software development will undergo significant changes, and many dreams that seem out of reach today will become a reality. The power of AI will not only enhance individual capabilities but also help us achieve broader shared prosperity.
Sam Altman suggests that this shared prosperity may exceed our current imagination. In the future, everyone’s lives can be better than those of the affluent class today. While wealth itself does not guarantee happiness, it can significantly improve people’s quality of life on a global scale.
Sam Altman believes that from a narrow perspective, the evolution of human history can be interpreted as a result of scientific discoveries and technological advancements. The accumulation over thousands of years has allowed us to extract chips from molten sand and use their astonishing precision and microscopic scale to build increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems.
This process may be one of the most influential phenomena in history. Starting from the breakthrough in deep learning technology, we may enter the era of superintelligence within a few thousand days, although it may take longer, I firmly believe that we will eventually arrive there.
Sam Altman believes that the key to reaching this threshold of prosperity leap lies in “the success of deep learning.” More specifically, as deep learning scales up, we invest more resources to drive this technology.
Humans have discovered an algorithm that can truly learn any data distribution. With increasing computational power and data, this technology has helped us solve many challenging problems, and the potential for future technological developments is astonishing.
Although many details still need to be addressed, Sam Altman is certain about the core role of deep learning. The expansion of AI will improve the quality of life globally, making personal assistant-type AI a reality, assisting people in various tasks, from healthcare to scientific breakthroughs.
From the Stone Age to the Agricultural Age, and then into the Industrial Age, today, we are on the path to the “Age of Intelligence.” This path is paved by computational power, energy, and human will.
According to Sam Altman, if we want to popularize AI technology, we need to reduce the cost of computation and ensure an adequate supply of energy and chips. If we are not proactive in building the infrastructure, AI may become a scarce resource, leading to resource competition or even war, and only serving the affluent class.
We must act prudently but also with determination. The arrival of the age of intelligence will bring significant challenges, but the potential benefits are immense, and we have a responsibility to explore how to address future risks.
Sam Altman concludes, “I believe the future will be so bright that it cannot be fully described in words. We will witness astonishing breakthroughs such as solving climate change, establishing space colonies, and even new discoveries in physics. With infinite intelligence and abundant energy support, we can achieve almost anything.”
As with previous technological revolutions, AI will also bring negative impacts. We need to be prepared, maximize the benefits of AI, and minimize its potential harm. For example, in the coming years, the labor market will undergo significant changes due to AI. While most jobs may change slower than people imagine, I am not worried that we will have “nothing to do.”
Humans have an innate desire to create and provide value to others, and AI will amplify our abilities in unprecedented ways. Society will enter a new era of expansion, and we can once again focus on win-win games.
Many of the jobs we do today may seem meaningless to people hundreds of years ago. However, no one will miss the past way of life. If we could travel a hundred years into the future, the prosperity at that time would also be unimaginable to us.
AI
OpenAI
Sam Altman
