Sam Altman reveals his biggest AI concern

Sam Altman in a recent street interview has revealed his biggest AI concern.

When asked about his opinion on Elon Musk’s take on money, the OpenAI CEO contended that money will still matter in 10 years due to risks of concentrated wealth and power from AI.

"I think money will still matter in ten years. One of the greatest concerns I have with AI is the concentration of power and concentration of wealth."

"There are many reasons to think it won't just magically solve wealth inequality,” he added.

In a recent interview to the Economist, Elon Musk predicted that money will lose its relevancy by 2036. “You want money for food, housing, transport, entertainment,” Musk said. “If that is so abundant, what do you need money for in that case?”

The CEO of SpaceX argued AI-driven goods and services like food, housing, and entertainment would flood the world, eliminating the need for money.

Their clash underscores a key AI debate: will abundance erase scarcity for all, or just widen divides, as online reactions mix excitement with skepticism over timelines and equality.

Both tech leaders though agree that artificial intelligence and robotics will unlock unprecedented levels of productivity and make physical goods drastically cheaper.

The main difference lies in vision. Musk endorses the post scarcity vision rests on a pure supply-and-demand framework. If the autonomous systems can generate great utility, the marginal cost of production approaches zero. In his viewpoint, money loses its core utility, allocating scarce resources, because scarcity itself has been engineered away.

On the contrary, Altman’s view is based on realism that abundance does not automatically create equality. For instance, if a car or a home becomes fundamentally cheaper to produce, the underlying architecture of capitalism, property rights, and the concentration of corporate power will still rely on currency.