Artificial General Intelligence Benefits Must Be Broadly Distributed: Sam Altman

By siliconindia  |  Monday, 10 February 2025, 16:31 IST

Artificial General Intelligence Benefits Must Be Broadly Distributed: Sam Altman
The need for the advantages of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) to be spread broadly across the global industries is underscored by the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. In a blog post recently published, Altman mentioned that there is a pattern in the development of technology through history: despite the fact that it has advanced economic and health outcomes, the equality of outcome has not often been a result. Innovative mechanisms may be required to ensure the fair distribution.
"Our mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity", Altman stated. He defined AGI as a system capable of solving increasingly complex problems at a human level across multiple domains. As AI development accelerates, he outlined key economic trends that could shape its future impact.
Altman, who recently visited India, shared three major insights on AI’s economic trajectory. First, he noted that an AI model’s intelligence is closely tied to the resources used for training and operation, including compute power and data. According to him, scaling laws indicate that increasing investment in AI leads to predictable and continuous improvements.
Second, the cost of using AI is decreasing rapidly. Altman pointed out that the token cost of GPT-4 fell nearly 150 times between early 2023 and mid-2024. "Moore’s Law revolutionized technology with a 2x improvement every 18 months; AI cost reductions are happening at a much faster rate", he noted. This drastic reduction in costs is fueling wider adoption and use.
Third, Altman highlighted that the economic value of increasing intelligence grows exponentially, making continued large-scale investment in AI highly likely. If these trends persist, he believes AI's societal impact will be profound.
The first AI agents being rolled out are virtual co-workers, one step closer to an integration of AI in life. Some sectors might not see as much of a change, but Altman thinks AGI will speed up the scientific discovery at a pace like never before.
"The impact of AGI will be uneven, but its potential to drive scientific breakthroughs may surpass all other advancements", he concluded.
As the AI revolution unfolds, ensuring equitable distribution of its benefits remains a critical challenge one that, according to Altman, will require thoughtful policy and innovation.

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