For Altman, building an all-purpose AI system was like taking all the technology start-ups he’d ever mentored in Y Combinator and putting them into one big Swiss Army knife. This powerful machine intelligence could be infinitely capable. Who knew if we’d even need businesses or start-ups anymore when a new superintelligence could generate enough wealth to keep everyone on Earth economically thriving? While Hassabis had believed that AGI would unlock the mysteries of science and the divine, Altman would say he saw it as the route to financial abundance for the world.
