Sam Altman, the chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, predicted that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will be developed during the term of Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect.
In an interview with Bloomberg reported on the 5th (local time), Altman noted his reasons for making a personal donation to President-elect Trump.
He said, "I think it is likely that AGI (artificial general intelligence) will be developed during this (Donald Trump) presidential term, and it seems really important to implement it correctly."
Regarding the donation, he replied, "I don't think it's a major decision either way. However, I believe we should all wish for the president's success."
When asked about the criteria for stating, "We have achieved AGI," he mentioned, "The roughest way I think of it is when an AI system can perform tasks that a highly skilled person can do in very important work," adding, "I call that AGI."
He also suggested that follow-up questions might arise, such as, "Is it for all jobs or just some?" and, "Can it do what the best people in the field can do?" and, "How autonomous is it?" He believes that if one could hire AI as a remote worker, it could be considered 'AGI.'
When asked about the most helpful actions the Trump second administration could take for AI this year, Altman avoided a direct answer. However, he emphasized, "It is how difficult it has become to build things like power plants and data centers that I deeply agree with the president on," stating, "While I understand how bureaucracy has accumulated, it doesn't benefit the country as a whole. This is especially true when considering what needs to happen for the U.S. to lead in AI."
Regarding the AI chip supply chain, he stated, "We have a really amazing partnership with the corporation Nvidia," adding, "I will talk in more detail in the future, but now is the time to scale up chips."
Altman addressed Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who has been in opposition to him, saying, "The question is whether he will abuse his political power as co-chair of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the second Trump administration to harass business competitors," asserting that he genuinely does not think so.
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman and others in 2015 but later fell out and left OpenAI. In February of last year, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, claiming that they had promised to develop AI technology for the benefit of humanity during the foundation of OpenAI but had pursued profit afterward, breaking their initial promise.