Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, published a cryptic blog post on Sept. 23, apparently celebrating that “deep learning worked” and claiming that humanity was on the precipice of an era of unimaginable prosperity.
The CEO also boasted that his company’s technology would be capable of creating more powerful versions of itself within a matter of decades that will accelerate humanity’s scientific progress “across the board.”
Altman announces the dawn of the “Intelligence Age” on X. Source: Sam Altman
Deep learning worked
Altman’s premise appears to be based on the recent debut of the company’s “o1” AI model, which is purportedly capable of reasoning through problems that its previous models struggled to solve.
Many of the company’s detractors have claimed that deep learning, the specific type of AI that powers models such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, can’t be scaled to create human-level artificial intelligence.
In his latest blog post, however, Altman skewers that idea outright:
“In 15 words: deep learning worked, got predictably better with scale, and we dedicated increasing resources to it.”
Per Altman, this appears to mean humanity is on the brink of an area of a new “Intelligence Age” where AI systems will begin to solve Earth’s biggest problems.
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“Although it will happen incrementally,” he writes, “astounding triumphs – fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics – will eventually become commonplace.”
Unimaginable prosperity
There’s no specific timeline for these changes to occur, and Altman mentions several times that they will happen incrementally and over time. However, the post itself begins with the statement that “in the next couple of decades, we will be able to do things that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents.”
It’s unclear if Altman’s post is setting the stage for the launch of a new consumer-facing product or major announcement, or if he’s simply predicting the onset of the “Intelligence Age” as an exercise in exposition.
Ultimately, Altman appears optimistic about this new age, whether it’s about to begin or already has. He writes that “a defining characteristic of the Intelligence Age will be massive prosperity.”
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