AI will surpass human intelligence in the very near future, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
AI is currently "very impressive," the tech mogul told Business Insider, while noting that it can't yet do many things that come easily to humans. But he doesn't expect it to stay that way for long.
"I would certainly say that by the end of this decade, by 2030, if we don’t have extraordinarily capable models that do things that we ourselves cannot do, I’d be very surprised," he said.
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In particular, Altman called out the potential scientific capabilities of AI. "In another couple of years, it will become very plausible for AI to make, for example, scientific discoveries that humans cannot make on their own. To me, that’ll start to feel like something we could properly call superintelligence," he said.
Altman went on to elaborate on the idea of AI superintelligence and addressed the fears that it will eventually take over humanity, treating us like ants.
"The [potential relationship between AI and humans] that has always been my favorite is my cofounder, Ilya Sutskever, who once said that he hoped that the way that an artificial general intelligence would treat humanity, or all AGIs would treat humanity, is like a loving parent," he told Business Insider. "When we ask that question, we are sort of anthropomorphizing AGI."
"I believe that this tool will be enormously capable," Altman continued. "Even if it has no intentionality, asking it to do something could have consequences we don’t understand. So, it is very important that we align it with human values. I don’t think it’ll treat humans like ants."
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When asked specifically about how OpenAI was helping shape AI and its values, Altman said, "We’ve obviously made some mistakes, as we understand that with this new technology, we’ll make more in the future. But overall, I’m extremely proud of our team’s track record on figuring out how to make these services safe, broadly beneficial, and widely distributed."
"I find it useful to think about tasks, not the percentage of jobs [AI could replace]," he said when asked about the effect AI could have on jobs, and the skills he thinks people should be developing that AI won't be able to replicate.
"There will be many jobs where a lot of what it means to do that job changes. Of course, there will be totally new jobs. And many existing jobs will disappear entirely and be replaced by these new jobs."
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"But… I can easily imagine a world where 30 to 40% of the tasks that happen in the economy today get done by AI in the not very distant future," he added.
As far as the skills he would encourage people to hone in this AI-forward world?
"The meta-skill of learning how to learn, of learning to adapt, learning to be resilient to a lot of change… learning how to figure out what people want, how to make useful products and services for them, and how to interact with the world," he told Business Insider
"I’m confident that people will still be the center of the story for each other," he said. "Anything in that world will be great. I’m also confident that human desire for new stuff, desire to be useful to other people, and desire to express our creativity are all limitless."
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