OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is laying out an expansive vision for artificial intelligence, linking access to compute with breakthroughs that could transform health, education, and the global economy.
In a new blog post, Altman says the scale of infrastructure required to advance AI is growing rapidly, and that building enough capacity will be essential to realizing the technology’s potential.
He frames compute not only as a business driver but as a potential social right, suggesting that widespread access to advanced AI services could one day be considered fundamental.
“Growth in the use of AI services has been astonishing; we expect it to be even more astonishing going forward. As AI gets smarter, access to AI will be a fundamental driver of the economy, and maybe eventually something we consider a fundamental human right.”
Altman uses examples to illustrate what might be possible with larger-scale systems.
“Maybe with 10 gigawatts of compute, AI can figure out how to cure cancer. Or with 10 gigawatts of compute, AI can figure out how to provide customized tutoring to every student on earth.”
He argues that if compute remains limited, society could face difficult trade-offs over which priorities to pursue. He proposes a factory model that can produce a gigawatt of AI infrastructure in just seven days.
“Our vision is simple: we want to create a factory that can produce a gigawatt of new AI infrastructure every week. The execution of this will be extremely difficult; it will take us years to get to this milestone, and it will require innovation at every level of the stack, from chips to power to building to robotics. But we have been hard at work on this and believe it is possible. “
The comments come as competition to scale AI hardware intensifies. Nvidia recently committed up to $100 billion to supply OpenAI with new systems, a deal that involves about 10 gigawatts of capacity — enough to power millions of US households. Elon Musk has also pledged to scale his own infrastructure efforts to levels never before seen.
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