Why Did The Father Of ChatGPT Say Humans Aren’t Special?

OpenAI founder Sam Altman had an interesting answer to CRED founder Kunal Shah’s question about the former’s understanding of humans after working on AI so far.

Speaking at an event organised by the Economic Times in New Delhi, Altman said that his worldview has changed from believing that intelligence is a ‘really special human thing’ to just being a fundamental property of matter.

“I feel like I have learned something deep… it is like, even if humans aren’t special in terms of intelligence, we are incredibly important… I think there’s something strange and very important going on with humans and I really deeply hope we preserve all of that,” said Altman, who was stumped while answering the question. 

He also said that the history of scientific discovery had taught him that humans were ‘less and less’ at the centre of the world, terming it a ‘nice’ realisation.

On a question about which four more companies he would build, Altman said that he would pick four verticals, he knew best, and would think of ways AI could revolutionise these areas. 

“…Maybe the meta answer is I should be thinking about how you use AI to make a better, faster AI company,” said Altman, inviting laughter from the audience. 

The glitzy event in Delhi saw, in attendance, the who’s who of the startup ecosystem, including the likes of Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur, Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal, MapmyIndia CEO Rohan Verma, and Fractal Group CEO Srikanth Velamakanni, among others. The meeting was also attended by senior bureaucrats and other stakeholders. 

During the chat, Altman also touched upon various issues such as the impact of AI on employment and regulation. He said that AI could disrupt the job market but could also lead to a productivity boom which could mean new jobs. He also said that countries across the globe needed to sit together and regulate the AI space, especially big tech players.

Meanwhile, the AI ecosystem has made rapid strides in the past few months, right after OpenAI unveiled its generative AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT. Since then, Google has also scaled up the deployment of its generative AI chatbot, Bard. 

Altman is currently on a trip to India and is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 8. Earlier on Wednesday, he also met a slew of Ministers, senior bureaucrats and stakeholders as Altman continues his tour of the region.