Altman says curing cancer isn't ambitious enough for AI

Sam Altman thinks Silicon Valley's favourite AI pitch, 'Cure Cancer', and the sceptics will come around, but it doesn't go far enough. In a Thursday interview with Bloomberg Television, the OpenAI CEO said the tech industry has done a "terrible job" making the case for AI's benefits, even as public trust in the technology keeps slipping.

Some tech leaders describe an eventual "abundance" era where AI eliminates the need to work and delivers medical breakthroughs like cancer cures. Altman said that vision undersells what's possible. "I don't think a cure for cancer is enough," he said.

"I mean, it's a wonderful thing to have, obviously, but we should set our sights higher." He argued AI should also spark a boom in creativity and entrepreneurship, a message he says has gotten lost entirely.

The construction of data centres has turned out to be a political hot-button issue; some school districts have banned AI in the classroom, and people are worried about AI’s effects on employment.

According to Pew Research Center, approximately 40% of Americans think that AI will have a negative effect on society, while 16% expect a positive influence from it.

“' It's very, very important to us that this technology is something where people get more autonomy and power and not less,' Altman said. People rightly get afraid if they feel like the leaders of the AI movement don’t share their sentiments,” he continued.

Altman's framing contrasts with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who argued last month that vague cancer promises have become counterproductive.

"At this point, saying that AI will cure cancer is more a cliché than it is inspiring, and most people think it is deceptive," Amodei wrote on X, adding that the honest criticism of AI companies, including his own, is that they haven't yet delivered on big promises.

His fix isn't better messaging; it's results. "The thing that will work is actually curing cancer," he wrote.

Although the two CEOs have different perspectives on AI, they both believe that dodging difficult discussions regarding potential dangers is not the solution. According to Altman, speaking about the possible dangers of AI "not just to sort of like, stir up doom, or concentrate power" is something the AI industry ought to be doing.

"That has been our intention," he said, "but clearly sometimes it ends up scaring people."