OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Confirms GPT-5 is in the Works

OpenAI, the research organization that aims to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), has confirmed that it is working on the next version of its AI system, GPT-5, and expects to raise more money from Microsoft to advance its goal.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, revealed this information in an interview with The Information, where he discussed the company’s current projects and future plans. He said that OpenAI is currently working on developing advanced autonomous software agents that can interact with complex environments and learn from their own experience, as well as GPT-5, the successor of its multimodal model that can accept image and text inputs and emit text outputs.

Altman said that GPT-5 will require more data and computing power than its predecessor, which already has 1.5 trillion parameters and can generate coherent and diverse text on almost any topic. He said that the training of GPT-5 will involve procuring more data, both public and private, to improve the model’s accuracy and diversity. He also said that the company will need to address the ethical and social issues that arise from creating such a powerful AI system, such as the potential for misuse, bias, and harm.

To support the development of GPT-5 and other AI projects, Altman said that OpenAI is seeking additional funds from Microsoft, which is the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI and has invested $1 billion in the company in 2019. He said that the company has massive costs of training increasingly complex AI models, and that Microsoft has been a great partner and supporter of OpenAI’s vision and mission.

OpenAI’s vision and mission is to create AGI, which is the hypothetical ability of an AI system to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human can. Altman said that he believes that AGI is possible and that OpenAI is making progress towards it. He also said that he hopes that AGI will be a positive force for humanity and that OpenAI will ensure that it is aligned with human values and interests.

Last week, at the DevDay conference, Altman said that this year’s announcements from OpenAI would look ‘quaint’ compared to next year. If GPT-5 is on the table, we may be in for a wild ride.