# Sam Altman Says Technology Is the Greatest Equalizing Force in Society | The Tonight Show

*The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon* · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMAg8_yf9zA

## Summary

Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, joins Jimmy Fallon to talk about ChatGPT three years after its launch. He explains what ChatGPT is, shares how he uses it as a new parent, and argues that technology like the iPhone and AI can be an equalizing force in society. He also discusses his worries about the pace of change and his hopes that AI will make scientific discoveries and cure diseases within five years.

## Key points

- Sam Altman describes ChatGPT as an AI chatbot that has gotten much smarter over three years and now serves as a general-purpose life adviser.
- Altman says people use ChatGPT for healthcare advice, learning, work, and even to figure out what tests to ask a doctor for.
- Altman and his husband have an eight-month-old baby, and he says he cannot imagine raising a newborn without ChatGPT.
- Altman compares AI to the iPhone as an equalizing force, since the richest person gets the same hardware and now the same AI answers as everyone else.
- His main worry is the rate of change: no technology has ever been adopted this fast, and jobs may change over very quickly.
- He says society has integrated AI thoughtfully so far, but everyone is still feeling their way through it.
- Altman hopes AI is never 'perfected,' because humanity's drive to improve should keep going forever.
- He hopes models will make small scientific discoveries next year and be curing diseases within five years.

## Notes

### What ChatGPT Is
- Sam Altman describes ChatGPT as an AI chatbot: you ask a question and it tells you what to do.
- It started out doing little more than Google Search, but over three years it has become much smarter.
- People now use it for healthcare advice, learning, work, and life advice — Altman calls it a "general-purpose sort of life adviser."

### Pros of ChatGPT
- Altman says many people report putting symptoms into ChatGPT, learning what test to ask their doctor for, and getting cured.
- He says you can learn pretty much anything with it, do work faster, and use it instead of Google.

### Using ChatGPT as a New Parent
- Altman and his husband have an eight-month-old son who loves trucks and cars; they even watched the F1 season finale together.
- Altman says he cannot imagine raising a newborn without ChatGPT, though he jokes he feels bad asking it simple questions.
- After a party conversation made him worry his six-month-old wasn't crawling, ChatGPT reassured him it was normal and even personalized its answer, noting he's the C.E.O. of OpenAI and shouldn't project high-achieving standards onto his kid.

### Technology as an Equalizing Force
- Fallon notes Altman's point that rich people have great doctors, lawyers, and business managers, while ChatGPT gives everyone access to the same quality of answers.
- Altman compares it to the iPhone: the most powerful person in the world had the same hardware as billions of others.
- He says it will take work to ensure AI pushes in this direction, but it should be a good force for society.

### Cons and Concerns
- Altman's biggest worry is the rate of change: no technology has ever been adopted this fast.
- The same general-purpose system that could cure diseases can be used negatively, and jobs may change over quickly.
- He believes society has done a thoughtful job mitigating downsides so far, but everyone is still feeling their way through it.

### The Future
- Altman hopes AI is never "perfected" because humanity's drive to improve should continue forever.
- Models now generate much of their own information by thinking harder, similar to how people build on past experiences.
- In 2025, models went from doing a little math to beating the best mathematicians at difficult competitions.
- Next year he hopes for small-but-important scientific discoveries; in five years, he hopes AI is curing diseases.

## Transcript

[00:01] -Sam, you've been considered one of the leading figures in AI. You co-founded OpenAI, which led to ChatGPT, which is celebrating three years now, ChatGPT. When all this is happening -- First off, what is ChatGPT? Can we just do that for anyone? My dad's probably watching. -It's like an AI chatbot. You ask a question, it tells you what to do. -And it tells you what to do. And so it's like Google Search, but you made it into more of a thing that you can have a conversation with. -Yeah. You know, it's gotten, like, much smarter over the last three years. So, it used to not do very much. Maybe it used to only do Google Search, and now it can, like, really do a lot of stuff. People are asking it for, like, healthcare advice,

[00:41] how to learn stuff, they're doing work with it. -Yeah, tell me, what are the pros of ChatGPT? -The number of people that reach out to us and are like, "I had this crazy health condition. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I just put my symptoms into ChatGPT and it told me what test to ask the doctor for, and I got it, and now I'm cured." Like, that's great. That happens a lot. -Wow! -You can definitely learn anything. -Anything? -Pretty much. I haven't found anything I can't learn. You can do your work way faster. You can use it instead of Google. You can use it for, like, advice about your life. People talk about all the people in their life and trying to figure out what to do. It's -- The idea is it's

[01:15] like a general-purpose sort of life adviser. -Yeah. And I know that you and your husband just had a baby. Congratulations. -We did. Thank you. -Yeah. -[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you. -How old is he? -Eight months. -Eight months old? -Yeah. -Are you loving him? -So much. I have no non-cliché thing to say, but it is by far so much better than anything anyone tells you. I am just so incredibly happy. -Is he into trucks? -Yeah, he loves trucks. We have to, like, spend a lot of time watching the garbage truck and driving around. He does love trucks. -He loves garbage trucks, too? -Cars. Anything. We watched, like, the F1 season finale this week. And it was the first time he got to watch TV. And he was like... -Oh, really?

[01:50] -Really, yeah. -He's thrilled. And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby? -I do. I mean, I feel kind of bad about it because we have this, like, genius level at everything, intelligence, sitting there, like, waiting to unravel the mysteries of humanity. And I'm like, "Why does my kid stop dropping his pizza on the floor and laughing." -Yeah. Yeah. -Like, you know? So I feel like I'm not asking a good-enough question, but it is -- I don't -- I cannot imagine having gone through, like, figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT. Clearly, people did it for a long time no problem. -Yes. -But... [ Laughter ] So I know, like, clearly, it was possible. -Yes, it was possible. -But I have relied on it so much.

[02:32] I mean, it's obviously, like, the most important thing to happen in my life, so it's top of mind and I use it all the time. But, like, a couple of months ago, I was at a party. I was talking to this guy, and, you know, we had kids about the same age, so we were talking about that. And, you know, he was like, "Oh, you know, what's your kid --" Normal conversation. And he's like, "Yeah, he's six months old. Once they start crawling, it's everywhere. They go everywhere." And I was like, "My 6-month-old can't crawl yet." And he was like, "You sure about that? You think he's okay?" And I was like, "Well, I think he's, like, about to start. I'm sure he's doing fine. And, by the way, I bet my kid can

[03:04] do a lot of things yours can't, so it's alright." But then I, like, ran to the bathroom and I was like, "Do I need to take my kid to the doctor tomorrow morning? Is this okay?" -"Should every kid be able to walk at six months?" -Yeah. Crawl. -Crawl. And, I mean -- Yours can. -No, no. Yeah, mine walked at -- Yeah. Mine on "Dancing with the Stars" at seven months. -There we go. -Semifinalists. No big deal. -But it was a really -- I got this, like, great answer back, which was like, "Of course it's normal. Of course you don't need to go to the doctor. You know, parents do all these sorts of things." And, by the way, it's personalized. Like, ChatGPT gets to know you. "And, you know, by the way, you're the C.E.O. of OpenAI.

[03:46] You probably are around, like, all these high-achieving people. Maybe you don't want to project that onto your kid. And you should just, like, relax and he'll be fine." And, you know, whatever. And I was like, "Oh, okay." -I've seen you in a couple of interviews, too, where you were saying -- People were asking you about ChatGPT, and you're like, "Well, it's kind of interesting, because rich people have these great, amazing doctors and lawyers and business managers, you know, whereas people that don't make enough -- as much money as these people, they don't get those opportunities." And what ChatGPT does, they have the same -- You can get the same answer. You're just typing in these questions. You'll get the best.

[04:17] -No, I think this is a cool thing about technology. I think there's many downsides to technology, but there's a lot of upsides. And one of the upsides is, it is a sort of equalizing force in many ways. You know, I remember people used to say this when the iPhone came out. -Yeah. -The richest, most powerful person in the world got the same piece of hardware that, you know, billions of other people got. And I think AI is pushing in the same direction, and it'll take some work to ensure it goes in this way, but it should be, like, a good force for society. -So, what about ChatGPT now? What is the cons? What are we worried about? What are the things that people don't like about it? -Um...I mean, a long list of things.

[04:58] But one of the things that I'm worried about is just the rate of change that's happening in the world right now. You know, this is a three-year-old technology. No other technology has ever been adapted -- adopted by the world this fast. It is a truly general-purpose thing. The same thing that can figure out how to go cure a bunch of diseases can be used in a bunch of negative ways. The rate at which jobs will change over may be pretty fast. I have no doubt that we'll figure out all new jobs to do and sort of, I hope, much better jobs. But the speed with which this is happening, as this just sort of, like, barrels through society, and making sure that we introduce this to the world in a responsible way, where people have time to adapt,

[05:40] to give input, to figure out how to do this, you could imagine us getting that wrong. -Yeah. And are people on it? -Yeah. Like, again, this has gone really well so far, better than I would have thought. If you look at the trajectory of the last three years, we have integrated this into our lives, into society. People use it in all sorts of really great ways, and we've been able to get, so far, a lot of the benefits, and I think we've done a good, thoughtful job as a society of mitigating the downsides. But we're still feeling our way through this, and I'm sure, as the intelligence keeps ramping, there will be a lot more to come. -And when do you think, like, it's all going to be, like, perfected?

[06:21] -I hope never. You know, I hope just we have a relentless -- we, as the human species, we have this relentless drive to improve and make things better and to want more and to do more and to create more. And I hope that keeps going forever. But if you just look at how far it has come even this year, in 2025, you know, we started this year with these models that could do a little bit of math, and by the end of the year, we're doing better math than our best mathematicians at our most difficult competitions. -Where's all the information coming from? -Well, at this point, it generates a lot of its own information. If you think about when you solve a new problem or write something funny, you draw upon your past experiences.

[07:03] You think really hard. You write something down. Maybe you see how it goes. You see how someone responds, you see if it works, and then you build on top of that and on top of that and on top of that. So, we're at the point now where the models can think harder and come up with new information. -And what's the biggest thing you see happening out of ChatGPT in the next five years? -Five years is a long time. In five years, I think a lot. Next year, I hope we'll start to see these models really make small-but-important new scientific discoveries. And in five years, I hope they're curing diseases. -Thank you so much for coming on and talking about this stuff. I appreciate this, and please... -Thanks for having me.

[07:40] -...hug that little baby of yours. -I will do that. -Sam Altman, everybody. We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show." Stick around.