Sam Altman, the current CEO and one of the original co-founders of OpenAI, has been offering his views on how artificial intelligence could shape the world for a while now. Today, Altman made a rare post on his personal blog that describes a future that, in his own words, "is going to be so bright that no one can do it justice by trying to write about it now" with the help of AI.
In his post, Altman says that the goal of an AI computer reaching "superintelligence", which has been defined as AI becoming more intelligent than humans, may happen "in a few thousand days." He adds that achieving that milestone could take longer but he is "confident we’ll get there."
So what is the future of an AI-based world? According to Altman, humans will have AI assistants that can do much more than what they can currently accomplish:
AI models will soon serve as autonomous personal assistants who carry out specific tasks on our behalf like coordinating medical care on your behalf. At some point further down the road, AI systems are going to get so good that they help us make better next-generation systems and make scientific progress across the board.
Altman does admit that "there are a lot of details" that will need to be addressed before any of this future with AI can happen. One possible obstacle is the cost of energy and the cost of making chips and infrastructure to power these AI assistants. Altman writes:
If we don’t build enough infrastructure, AI will be a very limited resource that wars get fought over and that becomes mostly a tool for rich people.
Altman also says there will be "a significant change in labor markets" with the rise of AI but added that he doesn"t believe that "we’ll run out of things to do".
The blog post shows Altman does have a mostly optimistic version of the future with more advanced AI. Of course, there are also people who don"t agree with his version, fearing AI could take over from humans rather than just assist them. The next few years will certain offer more clarity over how AI will shape the world.