Sam Altman's comments on the prospects of startups hoping to break through in the AI business may have come back to bite him. Several posts on X (and probably other platforms) ridicule the OpenAI boss and co-founder's dismissal of potential competition emanating from the startup scene, particularly those with only limited financial resources in the range of $10 million. Altman's comments were made during a Q&A session after a 'Conversations' presentation to India VCs, recorded in June 2023. The comments seem way off the mark in early 2025, with DeepSeek now on the scene claiming its groundbreaking model only cost $5.6 million to train.
This is pretty hilarious in retrospect.In India in 2023, Altman was asked how if a small, smart team with a budget of $10 million could build something substantial within AI.His reply: "It’s totally hopeless to compete with us on training foundation models" https://t.co/pdYIhV2x1mJanuary 28, 2025
