OpenAI’s Sam Altman says “we know how to build AGI”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the company is confident it knows “how to build AGI in the traditional sense,” referring to the tech industry’s long-sought benchmark of artificial general intelligence. He also predicts that AI agents capable of independently performing specific tasks could begin to “significantly transform the performance of companies” later this year.

Altman announced this decision in Monday’s blog postwhere he discussed the past and future of OpenAI. The company’s next goal is “superintelligence in the true sense of the word,” he says. “We love our current products, but we are here for a glorious future. Super-intelligent tools have the potential to greatly accelerate scientific discovery and innovation far beyond what we can do on our own, and thus greatly increase abundance and prosperity.”

Downplaying the previous definition of AGI may work to OpenAI’s advantage as the company is tied to exclusivity agreements with Microsoft in 2023 until OpenAI officially announces that AGI has been achieved. However, reports that Microsoft itself classifies AGI as a system that could generate $100 billion in profits may prove ineffective. And while Edge has heard that OpenAI plans to combine its immense language models into an “AGI” offering, potentially to achieve that goal more quickly, the company is not making a profit. Altman also claims that he is currently losing money on ChatGPT Pro subscriptions for $200 per month.

“People are using it a lot more than we expected.” Altman wrote in several postss to X. “I personally chose the price and thought we would make some money.”

“In my opinion, this whole event was a huge failure of governments by well-meaning people, including me. “Looking back, I certainly wish I had done things differently, and I would like to believe that I am a better, more thoughtful leader today than I was a year ago,” Altman said. “Good governance requires a lot of trust and credibility. I appreciate how so many people have worked together to create a stronger OpenAI governance system that will enable us to achieve our mission to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity.”