OpenAI’s Sam Altman, one of the foremost spokesman for artificial intelligence technology as a whole, has now admitted that AI may currently be in a bubble.
“When bubbles happen, smart people get overexcited about a kernel of truth,” Altman told a small group of reporters last week.
“Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My opinion is yes. Is AI the most important thing to happen in a very long time? My opinion is also yes,” he was quoted as saying.
Altman appeared to compare this dynamic to the infamous dot-com bubble, a stock market crash centered on internet-based companies that led to massive investor enthusiasm during the late 1990s. Between March 2000 and October 2002, the Nasdaq lost nearly 80% of its value after many of these companies failed to generate revenue or profits.
His comments add to growing concern among experts and analysts that investment in AI is moving too fast. Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio and Apollo Global Management chief economist Torsten Slok have all raised similar warnings.
NLPC has brought proposals addressing AI data ethics at Microsoft (which partners with OpenAI), Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet. These big tech companies consume large amounts of data during model training. They expected that whichever would win the AI arms race could add trillions of dollars to their market cap, which drove them to unethical data stealing practices to feed their models. Shareholders should pay attention to how these companies respond to a declining value proposition. Will they abandon their unethical practices? Or will they double down? Bet on the latter, so NLPC will continue to hold these companies accountable when it comes to privacy protections.
