Chinese tech companies progress remarkable
OpenAI’s Sam Altman told CNBC that Chinese tech companies’ progress across the entire stack has been “remarkable.”
Altman’s comments come as China races against the United States to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), where artificial intelligence matches human capabilities, and to spread the technology throughout society.
Altman said the pace of technological progress “in many areas,” including artificial intelligence, is “incredibly rapid.” He added that in some regions, Chinese tech companies are close to the limit, while in others they are lagging behind.
The country is trying to scale up domestic chipmakers that it hopes will eventually be able to compete with its peers. NvidiaArtificial intelligence companies are seeing big gains in the stock markets as investors double down on their potential.
Altman isn’t the only tech leader paying attention to China.
American tech companies should be “somewhat concerned” about the subsidies their Chinese rivals are receiving from their governments in the AI race. Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith told CNBC on Wednesday.
finding income
OpenAI is moving to improve revenue streams as it aims to provide a path to profitability for investors who have invested nearly $70 billion in the company, according to deal counting platform Dealroom. Company plans to complete $100 billion fundraising round Sources told CNBC.
Advertisements on ChatGPT are one avenue the company is exploring.
“I think we still have some work to do to figure out the ad format that will work best,” Altman said, adding that plans are still in the early stages.
“My personal favorite advertisements from technology in recent years are [companies] “It’s kind of Instagram-style ads that you might really enjoy and discover something new that you wouldn’t have known about otherwise,” he said. “I think we have a real opportunity to move in that direction with ads on ChatGPT.”
OpenAI initially plans to test ads in the U.S. but will eventually expand to other markets, Altman said.
Altman told CNBC that while talk swirls among market observers about timelines for OpenAI’s path to profitability, the company is still focused on growth at the moment.
“We are growing very quickly right now,” he said. “I think as long as we have reasonable unit economics, we should focus on growing faster and faster, and we will be profitable when we think it makes sense.”
