Millions of users around the world have used ChatGPT to do their homework, write essays, get recipes, and even code entire programs but its creators have a much grander goal in mind.
ChatGPT has become wildly popular worldwide and has hit 1 million users in as little as five days attracting a $10 billion investment from Microsoft last month, putting it on track for a $29 billion valuation. With the sky seemingly the limit for ChatGPT and its potential applications, the advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI) ChatGPT ultimately still is in its early stages.
When Sam Altman confounded OpenAI, he and a group of early investors including Elon Musk and Peter Thiel set out to counter Google’s growing hegemony in the artificial intelligence space. Google had just completed its $500 million acquisition of DeepMind, the London-based A.I. startup.
If things go in the right direction for OpenAI, it could even reverse the economic model Altman was rebelling against when he first started the company.
In one exchange, Forbes’ Alex Konrad noted the inherent tension regarding capitalism that’s found between OpenAI’s “research-driven” foundation, and the buckets of money investors have put into it. Altman had a provocative response.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, claims that his for-profit company will eventually lead to the downfall of capitalism. He is one of the only original cofounders still with the company and disagrees with fellow cofounder Elon Musk about OpenAI’s direction.
Altman believes AI will eventually gain consciousness and the company was founded to prevent the worst outcomes of AGI. He expresses his love for capitalism but believes AGI will eventually break it.
“I think capitalism is awesome. I love capitalism,” he told Forbes. “Of all of the bad systems the world has, it’s the best one — or the least bad one we found so far. I hope we find a way better one.”
“I think that if AGI really truly fully happens,” he continued, “I can imagine all these ways that it breaks capitalism.”
