OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claims AI usage costs drop tenfold annually, potentially impacting the economy and lowering goods prices.
AI Cost Reduction
Sam Altman stated that the cost of using current levels of artificial intelligence decreases about ten times every 12 months. He cited an example of the transition from GPT-4 in early 2023 to GPT-4o in mid-2024, reducing costs by 150-fold.
Economic Impact of AI
According to Altman, the drop in AI costs could accelerate changes in the economy, similar to what transistors did in the past. The core idea is that reducing the cost of intelligence and energy could significantly impact the prices of goods, except for luxury items and limited resources like land.
Future and Democratization of AI
Altman is open to experimentation in the accessibility of AI, including ideas like providing 'compute budgets.' He believes that driving down AI costs will help democratize access to its capabilities, aiming for everyone in 2035 to have intellectual capacity equivalent to the collective capabilities of people in 2025.
The decreasing cost of AI usage may lead to significant economic and everyday life changes, opening access to its capabilities for a broader population.