OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI is facing growing public skepticism in the United States, as Americans increasingly blame the technology for rising energy costs and corporate layoffs, even when it may not be directly responsible.
AI Skepticism Rises In The US
On Tuesday, Altman made the remarks during an appearance at BlackRock's US Infrastructure Summit in Washington, D.C., warning of "a bunch of potential headwinds" slowing AI adoption.
"AI is not very popular in the U.S. right now," Altman said.
He added, "Data centers are getting blamed for electricity price hikes. Almost every company that does layoffs is blaming AI, whether or not it really is about AI."
He also highlighted tensions over control and responsibility: "There's this real debate about the relative power between governments and companies going on."
AI Innovation And Economic Impact
Earlier, OpenAI planned to launch its AI video generator, Sora, within ChatGPT while keeping it as a standalone app, aiming to boost chatbot usage and compete with Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) text-to-video tools.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said the AI infrastructure buildout, already costing hundreds of billions, could eventually reach trillions, with Applications, Models, Infrastructure, Chips and Energy driving large-scale development.
Investor Vinod Khosla predicted AI would handle 80% of jobs by 2030, potentially replacing much of the $15 trillion in U.S. labor output.
He added that this shift could sharply reduce costs, dramatically increase purchasing power by 2040, and lessen the need for traditional work.