Sam Altman says people may someday “buy intelligence on a meter” like electricity or water and critics say the vision sounds more dystopian than innovative.

Sam Altman says OpenAI wants to sell intelligence like a utility

During a recent appearance at BlackRock in Washington, D.C., OpenAI’s Sam Altman, shared his vision for the future of AI. At one point saying, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Altman was describing a world where AI becomes a foundational infrastructure, something woven into everyday life so deeply that consumers and businesses simply “plug into” it the same way they rely on electricity, Wi-Fi or running water.

  • zarkanian@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    22·
    2 hours ago

    The wording also struck a nerve because many AI models were trained on enormous amounts of publicly available internet data such as books, articles, forums and creative work created by millions of people who were never directly compensated.

    That’s much too kind. We were never indirectly compensated, either.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
      9·
      1 hour ago

      and creative work created by millions of people who were never directly compensated.

      That’s much too kind. We were never indirectly compensated, either.

      We were never even asked for permission to use our works and words.