Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, said he expects the economic disruption caused by AI to take a little longer than people think, but then be more severe than people think, striking a slightly ominous note at a conference. New York Times DealBook.
He's talking about “superintelligence,” which is on the way, which is the idea that “you can give an AI system…a task that you would give to an intelligent human.” “This is the thing I expect.”
“Community issues” will come up, he told the New York City Annual Meeting. To make it safe, “there has to be some political issues and global coordination to the point where we can rise to the occasion, I hope.”
Altman founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, but the latter recently exited and the two have been in a long-running dispute that has spilled over into the courts. Musk is now close to President-elect Donald Trump, who has tapped the Tesla and SpaceX founder and his own fast-growing artificial intelligence venture, to run a new office called DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency.
When New York Times boss Andrew Ross Sorkin asked him if he was concerned that Musk might use his newfound influence to hurt competitors and favor his own company, Altman said no. “Elon is sure to do the right thing.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times is suing OpenAI — as several content creators have sued AI platforms for deep learning training over copyrighted fare. When asked about this, Altman said: “I think we need a new standard for deals, a protocol for how we reward creators. Copyright law and fair use should continue to apply. But I think there are additional things we're exploring.”
“We need to find new economic models where creators have new sources of income… However, The New York Times is on the wrong side of this lawsuit.”
“We will debate this and discuss it in court,” Sorkin said.
