OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AGI would have ‘whooshed by’ in 5 years with “surprisingly little” societal change than speculated

Sam Altman predicts AGI would have come and gone within the next 5 years with little change in society.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

What you need to know

OpenAI has been in the spotlight in the past few months, especially afterbankruptcy claims, with projections of $5 billion in losses within the next 12 months. However, the ChatGPT maker wiggled its way out of the tight situation through a round of funding,raising $6.6 billion from investors, including Microsoft and NVIDIAwhich pushed its market cap beyond $157 billion.

Sam Altman has passionately spoken about AGI(artificial general intelligence) and indicated that OpenAI is actively pursuing the audacious feat. In a recent Reddit AMA session conducted by the AI firm, the CEO stated thatit’s possible to achieve the benchmark with current hardware.

While he didn’t categorically state what it’d take to scale the incredible height, the CEO previously claimed it would take$7 trillion and many years to build 36 semiconductor plants and additional data centersto fulfill his AI vision.

As you may know, AI is a resource and power-hungry technology. There are already speculations thatthere might not be enough electricity to power its sophisticated advances by 2025despite AI potentially placing the world on the path to the biggest technological breakthrough.

For context,Microsoft and Google’s electricity consumption surpasses the power usage of over 100 countries, and it’s likely to get higher with more advances. The technology also requires large amounts of cooling water, which has been narrowed down tofour times more than previously thought.

AGI could be here sooner than we thought

Sam Altman previously indicated via a blog post that superintelligence is “a few thousand days away.” But as it now seems, the executive might have a more defined timestamp for achieving AGI, which he has narrowed down to 5 years (via@tsarnick on X).

In a recent interview on 20VC with Harry Stebbings, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman while making predictions about AI indicated:

Get the Windows Central Newsletter

All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.

“I think in 5 years, it looks like we have an unbelievably rapid rate of improvement in technology itself. People are like, man, the AGI moment came and went. The pace of progress is like totally crazy, and we’re discovering all this new stuff, both about AI and research and also about all the rest of science.”

Contrary to popular opinion about AI advances, Sam Altman predicts the rapid projection of AI and AGI’s impact on society would be “surprisingly little.” Altman further indicated “An example of this would be if you asked people 5 years ago if computers were going to pass the Turing test, they’d say no.” While computers eventually passed the test, there weren’t any significant changes in society, the feat went whooshing by.

In the long term, Sam Altman admits the AI revolution could lead to radical societal changes with rapid scientific progression, outperforming all expectations. Interestingly, a former OpenAI researcher indicated the AI firm was on the verge of achieving AGI but warnedthe company isn’t fully prepared or equipped to handle everything it entailed. This comes after an AI researcher revealeda 99.9% probability AI will end humanity,according to p(doom).

🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You’ll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.