At World Economic Forum, Davos (2024), in conversation with Bloomberg, Sam Altman says that in a reasonably close future, artificial general intelligence (AGI) will come, but he counters the thinking this would disrupt the world too much. It will not take over society.

OpenAI, since its foundation in 2015, has a mission to achieve AGI with the backing of Microsoft, and has a been valued privately at $100 billion. OpenAI is interested in developing this technology safely.

Sam was also in talk with Bill Gates previously. He dismissed the suggestion that tech startups are being run by youngsters who are 24. Many of the startups have been set up by people with experience and maturity and have people in their thirties, forties and even fifties. OpenAI too has many people in their forties and fifties.

IMF’s economist Gita Gopinath says the effect of AI on India will be relatively less as significant number of people are still in the agricultural sector. In advanced economies, about 60 per cent jobs may be affected by AI. This number will be 40 per cent in emerging markets and 26 per cent in the low-income countries.