- Sam Altman appeared on The Tonight Show to highlight the global growth and positive impact of ChatGPT.
- He called AI an “equalizing force” that gives powerful tools to ordinary people.
- While acknowledging the risks, Altman remains optimistic about the future of AI and OpenAI’s responsibility.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a victory lap of sorts mixed with warnings about Tonight’s show this week, he told host Jimmy Fallon that ChatGPT’s meteoric rise has been a big boon, but one that comes with some growing pains.
Altman turned to optimism, but perhaps not to blind reinforcement. He shared his belief that AI, particularly systems emerging from OpenAI, is helping to reshape society in profoundly positive ways. He compared the rise of ChatGPT to the global diffusion of the smartphone.
“I think there are a lot of downsides to technology, but there are also a lot of upsides. And one of the upsides is that it’s kind of an equalizing force in many ways,” Altman said. “The richest, most powerful person in the world got the same stuff that, you know, billions of other people got. And I think AI is going in the same direction.”
Look on it
Despite being one of the architects of the current AI boom, Altman isn’t necessarily a familiar face to casual viewers. However, he decided to change that by presenting his argument for AI to Fallon in person, explaining that more than 800 million people now use ChatGPT every week.
“It’s three-year-old technology,” he added. “No other technology has ever been… adopted by the world so quickly. This is a truly versatile tool.”
For Altman, this speed means people are voting with their time and confidence. They use ChatGPT not as a novelty but as a tool for all kinds of tasks in their lives. AI helps them write resumes, code software, generate travel plans and manage their daily lives.
He views AI, particularly as implemented in ChatGPT, as a distribution of power and not a concentration of it. Yes, OpenAI is backed by Microsoft and backed by billions of dollars in cloud computing. But the results, he says, are mixed.
AI everywhere
Notably, he didn’t arrive on the Fallon stage to make an announcement or showcase a product, despite GPT-5.2 being rumored to release this week. Not having anything to plug in suggests that he just wants people to believe that ChatGPT and AI as a whole are useful innovations.
Altman did not ignore the complications of AI in his interview, however.
“One of the things that worries me,” he admitted, “is just the pace of change that’s happening in the world right now.” But he wants people to adapt, to intervene, to build safeguards. “You might imagine we were wrong.”
On the surface, Altman made an eloquent argument, although it wasn’t the ideal place to explore the broader issues surrounding how AI tools are developed and used. There was no room to discuss issues of privacy, content ownership and use, or the resources devoted to AI and the technology’s potentially perilous economic fate.
Altman’s stint on late-night television wasn’t flashy, but his vision of AI as a utopian equalizer is certainly colorful. Whether that translates into long-term success may depend on what he does next.
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