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Sam Altman’s $7 trillion AI chip dream has him rounding on critics: ‘You can grind to help secure our collective future or you can write substacks about why we are going [to] fail’

Feb 12, 2024 - fortune.com
OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is seeking to raise up to $7 trillion for a new AI chip project, an amount exceeding the entire federal budget and twice the U.K.’s annual GDP. Altman is already in discussions with investors, including the UAE government, despite criticism from figures such as Sam Lessin, a Silicon Valley investor, who labeled the fundraising move as "showmanship", and Sasha Luccioni, a climate lead at Hugging Face, who warned of the enormous natural resources required for such a project.

Gary Marcus, a critic of AI and professor emeritus at New York University, expressed concerns about the potential impact of the project on the labor market, misinformation, and cybercrimes. He questioned Altman's belief in large language models as the only way to secure our collective future and suggested spreading the wealth rather than focusing solely on AI. Altman responded to critics by encouraging them to contribute to securing our collective future rather than predicting failure.

Key takeaways:

  • OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is seeking to raise up to $7 trillion for a new AI chip project, a sum that exceeds the entire federal budget and twice the U.K.’s annual GDP.
  • Altman is already in discussions with potential investors, including the government of the UAE, despite criticism from figures such as Sam Lessin and Sasha Luccioni, who have raised concerns about the environmental impact and the risk of creating a cult-like following.
  • Altman has responded to critics by stating that they can either help secure our collective future or write about why the project will fail.
  • AI critic Gary Marcus has questioned the potential impact of the project on the labor market, misinformation, and cybercrimes, and has suggested that it might be more beneficial to distribute the wealth rather than focusing solely on AI.
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