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Windows Central

Technology

Kevin Okemwa

Sam Altman believes AGI is "achievable with current hardware" — but it could absurdly require "$7 trillion and many years to build 36 semiconductor plants and additional data centers"

Sam Altman OpenAI ABS Semiconductor Best Buy Reddit ChatGPT

In this photo illustration OpenAI icon is displayed on a mobile phone screen in Ankara, Turkiye on August 13, 2024.

What you need to know

OpenAI top executives, including CEO Sam Altman and CPO Kevin Weil, recently held a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) session, discussing the company's future.
Sam Altman indicated he believes the AGI benchmark is achievable with current hardware.
ChatGPT performing tasks by itself is part of OpenAI's big theme in 2025.

"GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again, by a lot. It's important to ship early and often, and we believe in iterative deployment," says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Over the past few months, Altman has subtly thrown shade at the company's GPT-4 model, admitting that it "kind of sucks" and is "mildly embarrassing at best."

Sam Altman's remarks have built a lot of hype around OpenAI's flagship models. He even promised "with a high degree of scientific certainty" that GPT-5 would be smarter than GPT-4. However, as it now seems, we might have to wait longer for the scientific marvel.

In a recent Reddit AMA (ask me anything) session, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and other top executives discussed intricate details about the company's future and upcoming products and services.

AMA with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Kevin Weil, Srinivas Narayanan, and Mark Chen from r/ChatGPT

“We have some very good releases coming later this year! Nothing that we are going to call GPT-5, though," indicated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman while responding to whether the rumored GPT-5 model is in development and potentially getting ready to ship.

This comes after rumors swirling around the windmill last month indicated that OpenAI was getting ready to ship p a next-gen frontier AI model code-named Orion in December. Sam Altman quickly responded to the claims, branding them as "fake news."

As you may know, OpenAI is potentially moving away from the traditional naming of its models. Therefore, the ChatGPT maker could ship the model under a different moniker. Sam Altman indicated GPT-4's successor would be smarter and function like a "virtual brain."

A bright future for OpenAI and ChatGPT?

OpenAI logo displayed on a laptop screen and ChatGPT on AppStore (Image credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

ChatGPT could feature a hands-free way to end voice conversations in the future. "I love this idea. Sharing with the team now!," indicated OpenAI's Chief Product Officer (CPO) Kevin Weil when a user requested the feature highlighted above.

When asked about surprises during ChatGPT's launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman indicated:

"The big one was how much people liked it. The early version of the product was a very, very larval prototype. Now it's pretty good, but it sure wasn't then. It wasn't very accurate, it didn't have many features, it went down all the time, etc. And yet people found enough value to stick with it."

As you may know, ChatGPT was launched on November 30, 2022, meaning the AI-powered tool will be turning 2 this year. As part of its second birthday celebration, Weil indicated the tool will get more GPUs to power its advanced and sophisticated capabilities.

Earlier this year, OpenAI debuted in the search landscape with a temporary prototype search tool called SearchGPT. In the AMA session, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman indicated that the tool stands out from typical search tools like Google or Bing because:

"For many queries, I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I'm looking for. I think we'll see this, especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically render a custom web page in response!"

As AI Agents gain traction, OpenAI says ChatGPT will be able to perform tasks on its own. The firm confirmed it will be "a big theme in 2025." Finally, while responding to whether achieving AGI with known hardware is possible. Sam Altman indicated he believes the feat is possible with current hardware. Altman was ironically branded a "podcasting bro" after indicating it would "take $7 trillion and many years to build 36 semiconductor plants and additional data centers" to fulfill his AI vision.