Founder mode? Hmmm. Who needs that when you can be the creative father and usher in a new era for humanity?
Welcome to “God Mode”.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, an AI startup aiming for a $150 billion valuation, has previously pitched AI as a solution to the world's problems, despite the massive impact it will have on energy resources, carbon emissions, and water use to cool data centers, sacrificing the progress the world has made to combat climate change.
In his latest post, OpenAI leader Altman offers a very positive update on the state of AI, touting its world-changing potential. As Altman shows, AI is not just an occasional replacement for Google search or a homework helper; it's something that will transform human progress — and, naturally, for the better.
Through his optimistic connections, Altman touts the various ways he believes AI will save the world. But much of what he writes seems intended to convince skeptics of how important AI is, which may have the opposite effect. Rather than generating new fans, posts like this one could invite further scrutiny about whether we're in an “emperor's new clothes” situation.
One commentator on the tech forum Hacker News, with the username sharkjacobs, wrote: “I'm not an AI skeptic — I use LLMs all the time and find them very useful — but when things like this happen it makes me very skeptical of the people who make and sell AI.”
Let's take a closer look at Altman's promise and evaluate whether it's believable or just plain hype.
AI will help us solve “hard problems.” Believe it or not. Whether that hard problem is something profound like medicine, or more than helping engineers with coding challenges, helping kids cheat on their homework, or creating weird, maybe partially stolen art remains to be seen. “We will soon have AI at our fingertips. AI will help us accomplish so much more than we could without it.” Leaning toward the hype. Sure, with new tools and technologies we will be able to accomplish more, but will it be so efficient that companies will be willing to pay for it, especially given the current situation? It's still too early to know the answer here. “Eventually, each of us will have our own personal AI team of virtual experts in different fields who will work together to create almost anything we can imagine.” Hype. First, creating “almost anything” we can imagine is not necessarily a good thing. Not only does it devalue art and works created by real humans, but it also makes people imagine really terrible things. It's also worth wondering whether these “virtual experts” are just swiping through and summarizing the ideas of real experts. “Our kids have a virtual tutor.” Believe it or not. A chatbot helper may not be better than a one-on-one tutoring session with a real person, but it's true that many families can't afford the real thing. But such an important and influential role needs to be carefully defined and rigorously studied. “…imagine similar ideas for better healthcare.” Hype. Again, a vague promise that AI will improve our health and well-being because it will have “the ability to create any kind of software someone can imagine.” “We can share in prosperity that is unimaginable today. In the future, everyone's lives can be better than they are now.” Hype! Here he really gets into god mode. AI will “meaningfully improve people's lives around the world.” Hype. How? When? To what extent? Whose lives? There are a lot of questions here. “This may be the most significant fact in history ever. Superintelligence could be a reality within a few thousand days (!). It may take longer, but I'm confident we can get there.” Hype with a capital H. A vague allusion that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) will definitely come and it's just a matter of time. But many AI critics argue that AGI may never materialize, at least not as promised. Skeptics believe that while we may eventually end up with smarter models, they won't necessarily be models with the same level of understanding as humans. “…the next leap in prosperity.” Hype. Like many technological changes, AI may lead to job losses in the short term before it creates new jobs. If AI frees people from tedious jobs, how will people pay rent and buy food in a capitalist society that requires labor as a living wage for all but the super-rich? Much of this rhetoric will be familiar to anyone who has followed “singularity” type futurists for years. “AI will get better as it scales…” Believable. It makes sense that AI will improve as technology scales and grows, but it doesn't take into account the costs of that scale. “…and it will bring meaningful improvements to people's lives around the world.” Wait! It's hype. We'll need to see receipts on this when the time comes. Also, how is “meaningful” measured here? Because today's consumer experience with things like OpenAI's ChatGPT and other chatbots is often AI hallucinating facts, pulling incorrect information from scraped websites, or spitting out the stupidest stuff posted on Reddit, none of which is a “meaningful improvement” right now. (Of course, we're not just talking about chatbots in this article, but that might not be understood by the target audience!) “AI systems will be so good they'll help improve next-generation systems and advance science in general” hype. AI is already improving things in areas like medicine and science, but we can't yet measure whether these improvements are incremental or significant. Until we prove that AI expertise in cancer treatment or radiology translates into significantly improved outcomes for the general population, this has to be classified as hype. “If we don't build enough infrastructure, AI will be a very limited resource and wars will break out over it, mostly as a tool of the rich” hype. If we don't embrace and invest in AI, wars are inevitable. Get it? That's why we're building more power plants like Three Mile Island! YOLO! “The dawn of the Intelligence Age.” Hype. Historians define past eras. Maybe this is the “Age of Resource Overconsumption” that ultimately led to the downfall of humanity as far as we know it. “It won't be an entirely positive story, but the upside is so great…” The first half is believable. The second half is hype. “…the future is so bright that no one could do it justice if they tried to write it now.” So why does Altman try? We rate the futility as believable, but the brightness as hype. “The defining feature of the Intelligence Age will be massive prosperity.” Hype. Show me the money. Anyway, first convince your CIO of the value of AI. “It will happen gradually, but the amazing victories – climate correction, the founding of space colonies, all the discoveries in physics – will eventually become commonplace.” Hype. So we have to destroy the environment to run our AI data centers, but will AI eventually fix climate change? “…we expect this technology to bring about significant changes in the labor market…” Believe it or not. But don't underestimate this change. It could have negative consequences in the near future. “Many of the jobs we do today would have seemed like an inconsequential waste of time to people a few hundred years ago, but no one looks back and wishes they'd been a lamplighter.” Hype. Why a shady lamplighter? That actually sounds like a pretty easy job, right? Jokes aside, this is falsely equating the arrival of AI as being as impactful as the arrival of electricity, which is pretty presumptuous.
Altman's hype aside, it's worth acknowledging that AI is a major platform shift, perhaps the biggest shift since the advent of mobile technology (one example: Apple is selling the iPhone 16 based on its AI capabilities, not its hardware).
AI has the potential to be a game changer over time, but for now, it's questionable whether the advent of AI will ultimately be as significant as connecting the world through the internet and putting a web-connected computer in every home and in every pocket.
On one side are the true believers who eagerly await the arrival of AGI, and on the other are the skeptics who want to see more before calling the AI era a utopia, especially considering the real-world costs to the environment, labor, arts, and creativity.
AI is currently at a stage in its development where consumers and businesses alike are trying to figure out how AI fits into their normal workflows and where it will and won't improve efficiency. Until then, much of what's written about the future of AI is merely speculation.