Here is a summary of the key points from the interview:
- Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, spoke at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leader seminar.
- He discussed the rapid progress being made in AI capabilities with models like GPT-3, GPT-4, and the upcoming GPT-5 becoming substantially more intelligent each iteration.
- Altman believes we are in an unprecedented time of technological change, potentially the best period to start a company since the internet era. He encourages students to pursue ambitious ideas in AI.
- He sees OpenAI’s role as iteratively deploying AI models to allow society to co-evolve with the technology at a reasonable pace, learning through tight feedback loops.
- Altman is more concerned about the subtle, hard-to-predict dangers of advanced AI than extreme, cataclysmic risks that are being actively guarded against.
- He discussed OpenAI’s plans to build massive AI computing infrastructure and the immense energy demands that will be required as models become more capable.
- Altman emphasized cultivating resilience, adaptability and trusting one’s own non-consensus ideas as crucial for impactful entrepreneurship in this rapidly changing landscape.
