this post was submitted on 26 May 2026
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Sam Altman says OpenAI wants to sell intelligence like a utility

During a recent appearance at BlackRock in Washington, D.C., OpenAI's Sam Altman, shared his vision for the future of AI. At one point saying, “We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.”

Altman was describing a world where AI becomes a foundational infrastructure, something woven into everyday life so deeply that consumers and businesses simply “plug into” it the same way they rely on electricity, Wi-Fi or running water.

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What intelligence?

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

is he for real?

[–] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

his eye 1/2 his face is drooping so much, he had to of had a stroke.

[–] shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 283 points 1 week ago (7 children)

They don't have intelligence, they have spicy AutoCorrect

[–] daggermoon@piefed.world 80 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Exactly, I see people freaking out about this tech replacing them. It's not gonna happen, not with OpenAI's tech anyway. They don't have intelligence to sell. They have LLM's that are good at tricking people who don't know better into thinking it's inteligant. LLM's can't think and they can't reason.

[–] willington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The people getting tricked are CEOs and investors.

It's at least a bubble if not a fad.

It'd be diffetent if the AI sales pitch were only tricking lonely people looking for text-only relationships.

I agree with you in a sense, but what a good trick it is.

[–] socphoenix@lemmy.world 76 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I think the worry of large layoffs and instability while idiots try to use AI instead of people is founded even if it’ll end in disaster.

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[–] kylie_kraft@lemmy.world 42 points 1 week ago (2 children)

my favorite part of this is that after decades of sci-fi dystopias based on fear of evil AI overlords that destroy the Earth, in reality we're creating a dystopia where we destroy the Earth to build a bunch of shitty plagiarism bots and treat them like they're AI overlords.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Emotional_Engi@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I can't stop thinking that all dystopias are actually giving ideas to the rich.

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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 34 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I'm not worried about this tech replacing people, I'm worried about the fact that people are actively losing neural elasticity from using LLMs to think for them.

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[–] zd9@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (18 children)

Sorry, but you're wrong. I'm gonna get the downvotes because everyone loves to hate on AI, but it's true. There are many many entry level software jobs that can get replaced right now. I do AI research for climate stuff and all of my colleagues feel the same way. Yall can live in a different reality if it makes you feel better, but it's not the truth. That doesn't mean it's not a form of a bubble or at the peak of the hype cycle, though. Both things are true.

From a wealthy elite perspective, it's the desire of the ultimate triumph of Capital over Labor, and that's terrifying as being on the Labor side.

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[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 178 points 1 week ago (3 children)

they're pretty up front about it. They want to gatekeep knowledge so they can monetize it and control the labor.

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[–] teft@piefed.social 123 points 1 week ago (3 children)

So they stole the data to create these abominations and now they want to sell it back to everyone. Does no one see the fucking hypocrisy?

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 46 points 1 week ago

To psycho/sociopaths/maga, hypocrisy doesn't matter.

No rules or laws matter. Ethics or morals don't matter. Pain and suffering don't matter.

They will do whatever makes their empty souls feel thr need to achieve to satisfy their inhuman lust for power, control, status, and notoriety.

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[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 100 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It's not intelligence

Its the vast, free resource of the internet. Mined, paywalled, repackaged and sold back to you at a premium by rent seeking talentless hacks

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 84 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The wording also struck a nerve because many AI models were trained on enormous amounts of publicly available internet data such as books, articles, forums and creative work created by millions of people who were never directly compensated.

That's much too kind. We were never indirectly compensated, either.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

and creative work created by millions of people who were never directly compensated.

That's much too kind. We were never indirectly compensated, either.

We were never even asked for permission to use our works and words.

[–] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 23 points 1 week ago

Stealing your original work so you can pay for a regurgitated version of it.

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[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 68 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They scraped the internet's knowledge and want to sell it back to those who actually created it.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 38 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Rent-seeking has entirely replaced innovation in modern capitalism.

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[–] Wooki@lemmy.world 50 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Hype first, tangible income stream last, and this isn't it.

How did that grifter get the job in the first place.

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago

Putting aside that what they sell is not even inteligence: if they are providing a utility, then let’s regulate them like a utility, e.g. electricity distribution

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 40 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's wild how almost everything in the world is comic book evil from like a really poorly written comic.

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[–] echodot@feddit.uk 39 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Companies can already buy intelligence as a utility. It's called contractor work. Buying tokens from Sam Altman is not going to result in the outcomes the companies want. Hire me instead, at least I kind of know what I'm doing.

[–] Rusty@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 week ago

Snake oil salesman is saying that snake oil is a cure for everything.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago

I was heartened by college graduates booing these assholes.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 34 points 1 week ago

Why does he keep calling it "intelligence"? It's not intelligent. Even calling it AI is a stretch. It's an LLM.

Also, intelligence already means something else. When phrased like it is in this context, it sounds like he's talking about selling espionage.

But then again, telemetry and adware are essentially espionage. So maybe that is what he means...

[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Impossible. It doesn’t require any local infrastructure, so there’s no inherent lock-in like you see with utilities.

Utterly delusional CEO.

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[–] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

The dude changes his pricing model everytime he's interviewed. Dude has no idea what he wants to do, so long as it's billable.

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[–] BillCheddar@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Every capitalist is a conman.

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[–] AccoSpoot1@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago

Literally the future capitalism has always wanted; all common resources seized from the public for the good of private equity.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

Oh its a utility?

... so it should be publically owned and operated?

He didn't even say 'like' or 'akin to' a utility.

He said 'is a utility'.

... So then democracratize it.

And yeah, if WiFi is like that too, then yeah, lets have the public manage that as well.

... I wonder if ChatGPT can draw Altman looking at a broken clock being right twice a day.

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[–] thingAmaBob@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I’m not anti-AI, but anti whatever fresh hell they are unloading unto the masses. This is something that requires careful planning to ensure we don’t devastate resources or stall critical think skills and knowledge.

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[–] trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Please Sam, do the world a favor and step in front of a bus.

Call me paranoid but comments like this really have me worried about forced transhumanism

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[–] Hellgruen@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 week ago (7 children)

LLMs are not intelligent lol

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[–] pyre@lemmy.world 25 points 1 week ago (4 children)

ever since feudalism fell, dipshits all over the world have had one thing in mind: bring it back. now they're almost there. and the peasants are all too ready to give it back.

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[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Another desperate attempt to monetize. AI bubble-burst, here we come!

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[–] pwxd@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Oh okay, now I get why they made it so easy for student to let Ai do their work; they want the generation to rely on them

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[–] theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

So basically a world in which the only ideas that exist are approved by AI companies? I know evocations of 1984 have been a cliche for ages but

[–] quarkquasar@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago

I'll sell Sam Altman an ounce of dignity, only a small 1 billion dollar fee.

[–] melfie@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 week ago

Flimflam Sam says…

🥱

[–] deathbird@mander.xyz 21 points 1 week ago

Stop buying up all the chips you worthless piece of shit.

[–] Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip 21 points 1 week ago (8 children)

I still have a library card.

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[–] Lemming6969@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Imagine a world with no libraries, no internet search, no wiki.... They turn it all off after gobbling it all up, just to sell it back, because they end up with all information, for sale.

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[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (12 children)

It's VERY aggravating to use.

"No I said DON'T include this information I've told you three times now."

"Did I ask for your speculation/discussion?"

"No, I said CITE ONLINE SOURCES, not just make them up!"

"NONE OF YOUR EXTERNAL LINKS WORK!!"

...half an hour later you realise the first answer is probably the best you're going to get, and you'll still need to fact check it before using it.

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[–] wjrii@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

I like listening to Ed Zitron stuff, though admittedly part of it is AI Doomer comfort food, but one of the drums he beats is that the spend is absolutely obscene, and they’re going to have to start dramatically dialing up the prices, and soon, to have any chance at all of converting to profitability.

From what I’ve seen, even people who like AI won’t pay for anywhere near as much as they’re using now while it’s free or flat rate.

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