AGI's Arrival: A Subtle Shift in the World's Landscape

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated that there is a concern among people about artificial intelligence, believing that it will eventually become so powerful that it will completely change and disrupt the world. However, Altman believes that this concern is exaggerated.

"It will change the world less than we all imagine, and it will change jobs less than we all imagine," Altman said during a conversation organized by Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Altman specifically mentioned artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which refers to a form of artificial intelligence capable of performing tasks at or above human level.

He said that AGI may be developed in the "near future."

Altman's company gained mainstream attention after the release of the ChatGPT chatbot at the end of 2022. He is trying to alleviate concerns among AI skeptics about the extent to which this technology will take over society.

Before the launch of OpenAI's GPT-4 model in March, Altman warned technologists not to get too excited about its potential, saying that people may be "disappointed" by it.

"People crave disappointment, and they will be disappointed," Altman said in an interview with StrictlyVC in January. "We don't yet have a true [artificial general intelligence], and that's what people expect from us."

Founded in 2015, OpenAI has a clear mission to achieve AGI. The company, which is backed by Microsoft and has a private market valuation of nearly $100 billion, aims to design this technology safely.

Following Donald Trump's victory in the Iowa Republican Caucus on Monday, as the presidential election heats up, Altman was asked whether AI could exacerbate economic inequality and lead to the displacement of the working class.

"Yes, of course, I think that's worth thinking about," Altman said. But he later added, "It's more like a tool than I expected."

Altman stated that AI has not reached the scale of job replacement that many economists are concerned about, and he added that the technology has reached a point where it is becoming an "incredibly productive tool."

Concerns about AI safety and OpenAI's role in protecting it were central reasons for Altman's temporary removal from the company in November, when the board expressed a loss of confidence in his leadership. After widespread opposition from OpenAI employees and investors, Altman was quickly reinstated as CEO. Upon his return, Microsoft gained a non-voting board observer seat at OpenAI.