altman has three endings for superintelligence. in one of them a single company decides for everyone. i keep thinking about petrov in 1983, the man who doubted the screen. who gets to say wait now?
Sam Altman reportedly outlined three possible endgames for superintelligence, including one where a single company becomes powerful enough to shut every rival out.
According to The Information, he described three paths to OpenAI staff:
- An international watchdog, modeled on the atomic energy agency, that enforces AI safety standards.
- A CERN-style organization where the major AI labs effectively combine their work under one body.
- One developer achieves AI that can improve itself, gains overwhelming economic power, and uses it to “melt everyone else’s GPUs.”
Altman explicitly rejected the third scenario: "Obviously I think that one’s terrible." But he also reportedly told staff that OpenAI cannot afford to lose ground to competitors.
Increasingly, realistic scenarios are being envisioned, driven by the fact that AI is gaining such momentum and potential that global coordination is becoming necessary.
on september 12, 2026, i gave my first talk about ai risk to a live room. a ppt party in cusco. ten minutes, in spanish. the deck was built that same afternoon with my agents.
i was nervous. i didn't know the order of the slides. i went over time.
people liked it. the topic pulled debate.
i shared something i care about and other people also cared. i felt less alone. i felt more understood. but also that i need to improve my communication skills.