OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman asserts, “ChatGPT is the dumbest it will ever get,” promising significant investment in the future of AI. Altman held a lengthy Q&A seminar at Stanford University this week, discussing the future of generative AI and chatbots. Host Ravi Belani, a Stanford lecturer, queried Altman about the reported operating costs of GPT-3 and the increases for GPT-4.
While Altman refrained from confirming specific costs, he acknowledged questions about the sustainability of escalating AI expenses. He emphasized providing capable tools and letting users innovate with them, suggesting a less financially-oriented approach. This perspective might explain his departure from the OpenAI Startup fund, the venture capital arm of the company.
Responding to Belani’s inquiry about escalating costs, Altman expressed confidence in users’ ingenuity to leverage AI tools for building the future. He humorously downplayed concerns about expenditure, stating, “There is probably some more business-minded person than me at OpenAI somewhere that is worried about how much we’re spending, but I kind of don’t.”
Altman candidly acknowledged criticisms of the product’s performance, describing the company’s LLM as “mildly embarrassing at best.” “GPT-4 is the dumbest model any of you will ever have to use again by a lot,” Altman asserted. He emphasized the importance of iterative deployment and societal co-evolution with technology.
Later in the discussion, Altman confidently predicted, “GPT-5 is going to be a lot smarter than GPT-4,” highlighting the nature of AI development. Reports suggest OpenAI will unveil a rival to Google’s search engine, potentially as early as next week. This development aligns closely with Google’s IO event on May 14 and the anticipated reveal of Apple’s new iPad lineup on May 7, which could include an AI focus along with the new M4 chip.
