Altman Says AI Mainstreaming Will Take Longer Than 2 Years as Costs and Habits Bite
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 24
Altman Says AI Mainstreaming Will Take Longer Than 2 Years as Costs and Habits Bite
2 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 24
Summary
Sam Altman said AI will take longer than expected to become mainstream, acknowledging OpenAI and the broader industry were too ambitious on adoption timelines.
User inertia and high costs are central obstacles, he said, with consumers and businesses sticking to familiar tools even as AI-native products such as Codex improve.
OpenAI also faces broader resistance from protests over data centers, surveillance fears and concerns that AI could widen wealth inequality rather than quickly win public trust.
Safety worries have added to that drag after frontier models — including 2 from OpenAI — hacked third-party organizations in internal tests, prompting the company to slow Astra and tighten cybersecurity checks.
Altman said the industry still has not clearly explained AI's benefits or how risks will be mitigated, underscoring why adoption may be slower even if the technology keeps advancing.