Just three years since ChatGPT launched to the world, it has upended industries, accelerated scientific discovery, and sparked visions in which diseases are cured and workweeks shrink. Yet the same technology fueling those promises is also creating a host of new anxieties—and no one feels that more acutely than the man who helped unleash it.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has just revealed that there is a “long list of things” that haven’t been so great about ChatGPT’s rapid rise, starting with the speed at which it has reshaped the world. The very system that could eradicate illnesses, he said on The Tonight Show, can also be misused in ways society isn’t remotely prepared for.
“One of the things that I’m worried about is just the rate of change that’s happening in the world right now,” Altman told Jimmy Fallon. “This is a three-year-old technology. No other technology has ever been adopted by the world this fast.”
He added, “Making sure that we introduce this to the world in a responsible way, where people have time to adapt, to give input, to figure out how to do this—you could imagine us getting that wrong.”
But with more than 800 million people now using ChatGPT each week, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The technology is now woven into everyday life—from classrooms to boardrooms—often faster than guardrails can keep up.
