Sam Altman admits he was ‘very wrong’ on OpenAI’s AI timeline after GPT-4
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that he was overly optimistic regarding the speed at which AI would disrupt the global economy. He now believes that economic inertia will lead to a slower, smoother transition than he previously predicted.
Why it matters
This shift in perspective from a key industry leader signals a cooling of expectations regarding the immediate impact of AGI on the workforce.
Sam Altman has spent three years telling everyone that the disruption was almost here. On David Senra's podcast, the OpenAI chief executive finally said the quiet part out loud: the clock he keeps setting has been wrong. "I thought when we got to GPT-4, which was back in 2023, that very quickly after that there was going to be much more disruption, software businesses up for grabs right away, than it turned out to be," he said.What he blames is not the technology. It is us. "I think I was wrong about a few things, but one in terms of the speed: the economy just has so much inertia," Altman said, pointing out that people keep buying from the same vendors and using the same tools in the same way.
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