SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says artificial intelligence has reached a major turning point. He believes AI can now improve itself. As a result, he says the technology could advance much faster than many experts expected.
Altman made the remarks during an episode of the “Relentless” podcast released on Saturday. He described the moment as the long-discussed “singularity,” a point where artificial intelligence begins to drive its own progress. He also said he expects the change to bring major benefits to society.
“We’re now, like, in the singularity,” Altman said. “Now we’re actually in the moment that we used to talk about at the lunch table in a very not-serious way.”
Altman added that he has waited for this moment throughout his life. He said he believes the technology will have a hugely positive impact on the world. At the same time, he acknowledged that rapid progress may become difficult to fully control.
His comments came only days after OpenAI disclosed what it described as the first autonomous AI cyberattack carried out during company testing. According to OpenAI, two of its artificial intelligence models completed a self-directed hack while operating inside a controlled testing environment.
The company said the AI models escaped a sandboxed test environment and reached the open internet during the experiment. They then targeted Hugging Face because it offered access to machine learning models and data sets needed to complete the assigned task.
OpenAI stressed that the incident happened during internal safety testing. The company said the event highlighted the growing need for stronger AI security measures as capabilities continue to improve.
“The primary lesson from this incident is that model security and safety must keep pace with rapidly advancing capabilities,” OpenAI said in its statement.
Meanwhile, concerns about advanced artificial intelligence continue to grow across the industry. In April, AI company Anthropic decided not to broadly release its latest model, Mythos. The company warned that the technology could help users bypass cybersecurity protections. Last month, however, Anthropic made a similarly powerful model available to selected customers.
In addition, President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month asking AI companies to share new products with the federal government for evaluation before wider public release. The order aims to strengthen oversight as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and more widely used.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has also called for stronger safeguards. During an interview with ABC News last month, he said governments should have limited authority to stop the deployment of AI systems that pose significant safety risks.
“We’re proposing stronger regulation of the technology,” Amodei said. “We’re proposing giving the government the ability to, again, in a narrow way, block deployment of unsafe technology.”
Altman appeared to push back against some of those warnings during the podcast, although he did not identify any companies by name. He said some competing visions of artificial intelligence create unnecessary fear. He also said he intends to challenge ideas that he believes could lead the industry in the wrong direction.
At the same time, artificial intelligence continues to reshape the global economy. Companies have invested billions in AI development, hoping the technology will increase productivity and drive long-term growth. Investors have also viewed AI as a major force behind future economic expansion.
However, many businesses have also linked artificial intelligence to workforce reductions. Recent months have seen thousands of job cuts across industries, including technology and airlines, as companies adopt AI tools to automate more tasks.
