'Superintelligent' AI Is Only a Few Thousand Days Away: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, believes superintelligent artificial intelligence is only a "few thousand days" away, and will change the way we live forever.

Altman outlined his optimistic vision for "superintelligence" – technology that surpasses human capabilities – to solve intensive problems and push human progress forward more than ever before in a blog post on Monday.

The post came one day after a New York Times report revealed the executive is teaming up with famed former Apple designer Jony Ive on a top-secret AI device.

Altman wrote how changes with AI won't happen at once but will help us "accomplish much more than we ever could without AI." He described children having virtual tutors who will be able to provide personalized instruction on various topics, in different languages and at any pace, and autonomous personal assistants that could execute tasks such as coordinating medical care on your behalf. 

"Although it will happen incrementally, astounding triumphs – fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics – will eventually become commonplace. With nearly-limitless intelligence and abundant energy – the ability to generate great ideas, and the ability to make them happen – we can do quite a lot."

But in order for the "Intelligence Age" to take off, he said, the cost of computing will need to go down and the infrastructure will need to be robust to provide all of the required energy and chips. 

"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," he wrote.

Altman once again acknowledged how the industry needs to "maximize AI's benefits while minimizing its harms." He's been vocal about the "catastrophic risks" associated with AI, alongside other tech leaders including Bill Gates and Elon Musk, because of AI's potential.

But not everyone feels AI will upend life as we know it. Some experts, including linguistics professor Noam Chomsky and Rodney Brooks, who ran MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory for 10 years, believe the impact of generative AI is overhyped because it will never be able to think better than humans.