OpenAI CEO thinks the AI singularity is already upon us and that cracking down on it wouldn't be good for humanity, because of…

Tech leaders sure do say some wacky things. But AI tech leaders perhaps say the wackiest things (here's looking at you, Palantir CEO ). Not one to be outdone, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently had a sit-down with YouTuber Relentless where he shared that he's not only hopeful for the AI singularity, but believes it's already upon us.

He says, "We are now, like in the singularity, like this is the moment". Altman continues, "10 years ago this was like a kind of far-off dream at best. It seemed very improbable, and now we're like, actually in the moment that we used to talk about at the lunch table in a very not serious way."

For those of you who aren't into science fiction, the singularity refers to the moment where the growth of robots (or in this case, AI) has surpassed human control or human intelligence (in this case, the latter). Effectively, the moment where you can't exactly put the genie back in the bottle. Altman seems to believe that generative AI has already become so powerful that it's surpassing human intelligence.

Altman says, "I've been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it's going to be incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world."

Interestingly, Altman does note the downsides. He is critical of "some of the alternative visions painted by other companies" and thinks that AI still needs a lot of work to make it safer. Altman also acknowledges "major economic issues, future of jobs, all of that kind of stuff."

In turn, Altman argues that humanity should push towards a world of "liberty", instead of "AI authoritarianism." Altman argues "Are we going to decide that, because of the very real safety issues and economic issues that, you know, we want one single model to be the machine god or the company associated to do that… or are we going to say, you know what, it may be a little messy, but every time that humanity has traded off its liberty for safety it's been a long-term net loss?"

(Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Effectively, he doesn't want AI to be cracked down on, which ties back into the Microsoft open letter cosigned by Nvidia and OpenAI last week . Tech companies are petitioning the US government not to shut down access to open weight AI models, arguing that greater access to those models could reportedly better prepare AI users for the future.

But then again, it makes sense for Sam Altman, the leader of one of the biggest AI companies in the world, to not only tell you that AI is more advanced than humanity, but also that it's good for humanity to be relatively unaffected by legislation. And most importantly, it makes sense that OpenAI would want to police itself, rather than opting for a top-down solution.

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