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ChatGPT was released 30 November 2022.Two months later, it had 100 million users!
ChatGPT end of January 2023 already had 40% of the entire US population age 15 and above – as of May 2023, ChatGPT may have grown to over 400 million, surpassing the entire US population. AI is the “killer app” – the fastest growing computer application ever.
People in the US and internationally is adopting AI because they are excited. The small circle of intellectualized opinion-dictators who are angry and scared of AI stay away – like a grumpy last-century Liberal who recently wrote a newsletter that he “didn’t use AI and didn’t want to”.
ChatGPT builds on language – which is what everybody uses. So there is a use for everybody, every child, man, woman, or organization out there for AI. Already, lots of companies are working to integrate GPT-4, the big sibling to ChatGPT, into their applications in sales, journalism, research, law, medicine, engineering, movies, architecture, music etc. And let’s not hide it – ChatGPT will be integrated into military applications as well. OpenAI expects to earn $ 1 billion already next year.
Politicians Want AI Now
Congress also desires AI, in spite of some corners voicing public concerns. The US is in an arms race in AI against China, and Congress has a deadly fear of China. It’s a tight race. Just a year ago, China was leading in AI over the US with Wu Dao 2.0, and only in November 2022 did the US take the lead over China with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The chips embargo will slow China in AI, but not by much and not for long. Even under the chips embargo, China can buy more powerful chips than ever, and though these chips are not as powerful as the chips sold in the US, China can just buy more of them to increase computing power.
Congress knows that if it slows AI development in the US with bureaucratic rules and regulations which Congress itself doesn’t understand anyway, China will definitely take the lead in AI globally. On top of this, there are already powerful industrial interests behind AI. Not only from Microsoft, but also from scores of US corporate industries, universities, research institutions, and the US military, all of which cannot wait to get their hands on AI. It is therefore no surprise, that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altmann got an unusually warm welcome at his appearance before Congress today 16 May 2023. See this.
OpenAI is treated differently than Facebook. Nobody in Congress cares about Zuckerman and Facebook. Come on, what is posted on Facebook is mostly just a hassle for the politicians to deal with – if Congress could close Facebook, their life would be easier. AI is a different matter. AI is real military and economic power and huge profits awaiting US corporations, incl. the influential US arms and healthcare industries.
AI represents what Congress understands. National power and corporate profits. Members of Congress all expressed “concerns” about AI, but that is just to please the public and the press. In reality, Congress covers OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altmann and the AI industry. And Sam Altmann wisely chose to meet Congress dressed nicely and expressing a humble attitude to “work with Congress”. Sam Altmann doesn’t have to worry anyway. Don’t waste time waiting for Congress to set up “regulatory body” and rules, there will be none of that in the foreseeable future.
And should rules and regulatory bodies come anyway, it will be OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and the AI industry writing the rules anyway. OpenAI will continue creating the fastest growing computer system ever.
Full speed ahead on AI.
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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
