OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says superintelligence is 'a few thousand days' away

Artificial Intelligence or AI is already reshaping the way the world works. From manufacturing to content creation and even education, AI is revolutionising almost every facet of life today. While that might seem a little overwhelming sometimes, we are far from done yet. In the near future, AI will enable users to do things 'that would have seemed like magic to our grandparents'. At least that is what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes in.

He also believes that superintelligence will arrive in a few thousand days. "It is possible that we will have superintelligence in a few thousand days (!); it may take longer, but I’m confident we’ll get there," he wrote in his latest blog titled 'The Intelligence Age'. Exactly how much time is a 'few thousand days', there's no telling. For reference, 2,000 days is 5.47 years, while 5,000 days is 13.69 years.

For the unversed, the scientific community is working on developing 'Artificial General Intelligence' right now. Artificial General Intelligence or AGI is state when AI will possess human-like intelligence, wherein it can self-teach and perform tasks that it is not necessarily trained for. Superintelligence or Artificial Superintelligence goes beyond that. It's a state when AI surpasses human intelligence. Both AGI and ASI are hypothetical states at the moment.

While ASI will take some time to achieve, the OpenAI CEO believes that there is plenty that AI will achieve in the meantime.

In his post, Altman said soon people will be able to have a 'personal team of AI' full of 'full of virtual experts in different areas, working together to create almost anything'. He envisions that kids will have virtual tutors that will provide personalised instructions, and that the healthcare industry will improve significantly.

"AI models will soon serve as autonomous personal assistants who carry out specific tasks on our behalf like coordinating medical care on your behalf. At some point further down the road, AI systems are going to get so good that they help us make better next-generation systems and make scientific progress across the board," Altman wrote in his blog. He also said that in the future, AI will help in fixing climate change, establishing space colonies and amplifying our abilities.

Beyond the positive impact, the OpenAI CEO did dwell into the downside to these developments. In his blog, Altman wrote that advancements in AI will lead to a 'significant change in the labour market'. "…we expect that this technology can cause a significant change in labor markets (good and bad) in the coming years, but most jobs will change more slowly than most people think, and I have no fear that we’ll run out of things to do (even if they don’t look like “real jobs” to us today)," he wrote.