In this article from a year ago called “Moore’s Law for Everything,” Sam Altman, the creator of OpenAI, made some bold predictions about the impact of artificial intelligence.
Altman stated that:
– Within the next five years, computer programs that can think will be able to read legal documents and provide medical advice.
– Within the next decade, these programs will be capable of doing assembly-line work and may even become companions.
– In the decades after that, they will be capable of doing almost everything, including making new scientific discoveries that will expand our concept of “everything.”
According to Altman, this technological revolution is unstoppable and will have three consequences:
– This revolution will create phenomenal wealth. The price of many kinds of labor, which drives the costs of goods and services, will fall towards zero once sufficiently powerful AI “joins the workforce.”
– The world will change so rapidly and drastically that an equally drastic change in policy will be needed to distribute this wealth and enable more people to pursue the life they want.
– If we get both of these rights, we can improve the standard of living for people more than we ever have before.
This reminds me of a quote from Commander Picard in Star Trek:
“A lot has changed in three hundred years. People are no longer obsessed with the accumulation of ‘things’. We have eliminated hunger, want, the need for possessions.
The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century… The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity.” (Picard) 🚀
Sam Altman’s predictions about the impact of AI are ambitious and not entirely unrealistic, but the challenges of distributing wealth and enabling people to pursue their desired lifestyle will may require more than just an AI to solve !