The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is currently in a bubble, said OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman, on Friday, August 15. He also mentioned that the technology will still bring significant benefits in the long run.
International media reported that Altman made the remarks at a private dinner with tech journalists following the launch of OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-5. Still, he described AI technology as one of the most important developments of the past several decades, with the potential to reshape everything from mathematics to science.
Altman was careful to distinguish between short-term speculation and lasting impact. While some investors may face steep losses, he said, the overall societal value created by AI will be immense. In a move reflecting the ambition of OpenAI, the company is reportedly preparing to invest in a brain-computer interface startup, signalling its intent to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink and push the boundaries of human-computer interaction.
Concerns about an AI bubble have been mounting since earlier this year when Chinese startup DeepSeek released a competitive reasoning model built at about half the cost of US-based rivals, including OpenAI.
Industry leaders such as Alibaba co-founder Joe Tsai, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio, and Apollo Global Management economist Torsten Slok have also expressed unease over the pace of investment. Tsai, speaking at HSBC’s Global Investment Summit in March, reportedly questioned whether the enormous spending on data centres was necessary and warned about speculative projects without clear market demand.
Yet there are some differences between today’s AI boom and the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s. The dotcom crash eliminated countless startups but ultimately laid the foundation for the modern internet. Altman and others believe AI could follow a similar course, with short-term volatility but lasting benefits for society.