Altman reportedly outlined three superintelligence endgames to OpenAI staff, including one lab locking out all rivals
kimmonismus · x · 2026-10-20
According to The Information, Sam Altman laid out three possible superintelligence endgames for OpenAI staff:
- An international watchdog modeled on the atomic energy agency enforcing AI safety standards.
- A CERN-style body combining the major AI labs' work under one organization.
- One developer achieving self-improving AI, gaining overwhelming economic power, and using it to "melt everyone else's GPUs," locking all rivals out of compute.
Altman explicitly rejected the third path — "Obviously I think that one's terrible" — saying it was included only for completeness, but also reportedly told staff OpenAI cannot afford to fall behind competitors. The post argues realistic global-coordination scenarios are increasingly being envisioned as AI's momentum grows.
More from AGI Musings
- Compute-as-UBI: what happens when everyone has an agent earning money for them? — flowersslop · 2026-10-20
- What's the smallest action you'd trust an AI agent to take? — NecessaryCheck3295 · 2026-10-20
- Carissa Véliz: algorithms are often the hitmen companies send to execute their will to power — CarissaVeliz · 2026-10-20
- UK government advisers warn Britain risks becoming a 'high-value AI customer' — Polymarket · 2026-10-20
- Mathematician says AI proved a combinatorics conjecture, now wonders where to share it — tak3sh8 · 2026-10-20
- Moshi CEO Anekha Sokhal: AI should do the quant grind, humans keep the edge — AI Engineer · 2026-10-20