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.

  • badgermurphy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 hour ago

    The technology is here to stay but nearly all of its current uses are not. There is no way, for example, talking to an LLM at a fast food drive-through, isn’t costing more than it saves. It seems that way today because of VC subsidy, but that is an economic illusion made possible by an anti-competitive oligopoly market. There are many other examples, too, but I thought that a more fun obvious one.