OpenAI’s Sam Altman says AI use is ‘non-negotiable’

OpenAI boss Sam Altman has claimed that the use of AI is "non-negotiable", comparing the technology's importance to that of electricity.

Speaking at the G20 Innovation Ministerial meeting in North Carolina on Wednesday, Mr Altman predicted that artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT will create "the greatest entrepreneurial explosion" in history.

"Many of you are going to take very different approaches to how you regulate AI, how you welcome it into your country, how you use it. But for sure, I think it is non-negotiable that you have to use it," he said.

"The economic growth and benefit to people that can come from this, the value to a country, is too high to ignore.

"Electricity also came with some complexities, and it took a little while to figure out how to make it safe... It would be hard for society to function well without electricity at this point."

Other AI leaders at the meeting in Chapel Hill included Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang, who joined delegates in person, as well as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis and SpaceXAI chief executive Elon Musk, who all appeared via video link.

US tech adviser Michael Kratsios, who co-hosted the G20 event, called on countries to adopt the "Carolina Principles" that would avoid "writing entirely new regulations for AI" in order to allow companies to focus on innovation.