On Thursday, Sam Altman, the &#34;flag bearer&#34; of the global AI wave and CEO of OpenAI, candidly admitted that the artificial intelligence industry is currently in a bubble.
His remarks have drawn significant market attention, especially as OpenAI seeks an astonishing valuation of up to $500 billion and has secured billions in investments from giants like Microsoft, SoftBank, and NVIDIA.
However, while warning of the bubble, Altman also seemed to declare a sense of confidence: the bubble will eventually burst, but OpenAI will be the one to laugh last.
<h2>History Repeats: The AI Boom Resembles the &#34;Dot-Com Bubble&#34;</h2>
Altman believes that the current frenzy in the AI field bears many similarities to the dot-com bubble of the past.
He told the media, &#34;When a bubble occurs, smart people get overly excited about the core of a truth.&#34; He recalled that most historical bubbles were supported by genuine technological revolutions, stating, &#34;Technology is really important, the internet is really important. It's just that people became overly excited.&#34;
The internet bubble of the 1990s mirrors the current market enthusiasm for artificial intelligence in many ways. At that time, a massive influx of capital entered the internet industry without a clear profit model, ultimately leading to a bubble burst when profits could not be realized.
Today's &#34;data centers&#34; and &#34;AI startups&#34; are akin to the &#34;telecom infrastructure&#34; and &#34;internet companies&#34; of the bubble era, with similar fervor replaying in the AI field.
<h2>Trillion-Dollar Gamble: &#34;Someone Will Suffer Huge Losses, But We Don't Know Who&#34;</h2>
Despite acknowledging the industry's bubble, some of Altman's other remarks suggest he believes OpenAI will be the &#34;survivor&#34; that navigates through the cycle—much like Google and Amazon grew into global giants after the dot-com bubble burst.
Currently, ChatGPT's weekly active users have surpassed 700 million, quadrupling from a year ago. Altman ambitiously told the media:
<blockquote>
&#34;Soon, billions of people will be talking to ChatGPT every day...
We are now the fifth largest website in the world and are clearly on the path to becoming third.&#34;
</blockquote>
The most indicative of his &#34;survivor&#34; logic is Altman's seemingly audacious &#34;AI infrastructure&#34; plan.
&#34;You should anticipate that OpenAI will spend trillions of dollars on data center construction in the not-too-distant future,&#34; he stated to the media. This is clearly not something a company preparing to face severe economic difficulties would say.
Regarding potential external criticisms of &#34;madness&#34; or &#34;recklessness,&#34; he seemed to have anticipated them and prepared to ignore them directly:
<blockquote>
&#34;We will say, 'You know what? Let us do our thing.'&#34;
</blockquote>
In this trillion-dollar-driven gamble, there are bound to be losers. Altman pointedly remarked that &#34;someone&#34; will lose &#34;an astonishing amount of money.&#34; But he quickly added, &#34;We don't know who.&#34;
Clearly, Altman believes that OpenAI cannot be a loser.
&#34;Although my views may prove to be wrong, overall, this will bring tremendous net benefits to the economy,&#34; he told the media

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OpenAI

On one side is a warning against "excessive excitement" in the entire industry, while on the other side is a "trillion-dollar" betting plan

- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that the AI industry is currently in a bubble, drawing parallels to the dot-com bubble of the 1990s.  
- Despite this warning, he expressed confidence that OpenAI will emerge as a winner, similar to how Google and Amazon thrived post-dot-com crash.  
- Altman highlighted the rapid growth of ChatGPT and ambitious plans for data center investments, suggesting that while there will be losers in this trillion-dollar gamble, he believes OpenAI will not be among them.  

Altman: AI is in a bubble, just like the "dot-com bubble," where some incur huge losses, but "no one knows who."