OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Reveals ‘Unbelievable’ Growth and Challenges at TED 2025
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that his company has grown to 800 million weekly active users and is experiencing “unbelievable” growth rates during a sometimes tense interview at the TED 2025 conference in Vancouver last week. “I have never seen growth in any company, one that I’ve been involved with or not, like this,” Altman told TED head Chris Anderson during their on-stage conversation.
The growth of ChatGPT is “really fun” and “crazy to live through,” Altman said, but acknowledged that the company’s teams are “exhausted and stressed.” OpenAI’s GPUs are “melting” due to the popularity of its new image generation features, with Altman admitting, “All day long, I call people and beg them to give us their GPUs. We are so incredibly constrained.”
This exponential growth comes as OpenAI is reportedly considering launching its own social network to compete with Elon Musk’s X, according to CNBC. Altman neither confirmed nor denied these reports during the TED interview. The company recently closed a $40 billion funding round, valuing it at $300 billion — the largest private tech funding in history — which will likely help address some of these infrastructure challenges.
Transformation from Non-Profit to $300 Billion Giant
Throughout the 47-minute conversation, Anderson repeatedly pressed Altman on OpenAI’s transformation from a non-profit research lab to a for-profit company with a $300 billion valuation. Altman defended OpenAI’s path, stating, “Our goal is to make AGI and distribute it, make it safe for the broad benefit of humanity.” He acknowledged that the company’s tactics have shifted over time, saying, “We didn’t think we would have to build a company around this. We learned a lot about how it goes and the realities of what these systems were going to take from capital.”
Addressing Copyright Concerns and Artist Compensation
One of the most concrete policy announcements from the interview was Altman’s acknowledgment that OpenAI is working on a system to compensate artists whose styles are emulated by AI. “I think there are incredible new business models that we and others are excited to explore,” Altman said when pressed about apparent IP theft in AI-generated images. He suggested a revenue-sharing model could be forthcoming, though details remain scarce.
Safety Challenges with Autonomous AI Agents
The conversation grew particularly tense when discussing “agentic AI” — autonomous systems that can take actions on the internet on a user’s behalf. OpenAI’s new “Operator” tool allows AI to perform tasks like booking restaurants, raising concerns about safety and accountability. Altman referenced OpenAI’s “preparedness framework” but provided few specifics about how the company would prevent misuse of autonomous agents.
Defining Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Altman admitted that even within OpenAI, there’s no consensus on what constitutes AGI — the company’s stated goal. “It’s like the joke, if you’ve got 10 OpenAI researchers in a room and asked to define AGI, you’d get 14 definitions,” Altman said. He suggested focusing on the gradual improvement of AI capabilities rather than a specific moment when AGI arrives.
Loosening Content Moderation Guardrails
Altman also disclosed a significant policy change regarding content moderation, revealing that OpenAI has loosened restrictions on its image generation models. “We’ve given the users much more freedom on what we would traditionally think about as speech harms,” he explained. This shift could signal a broader move toward giving users more control over AI outputs.
The Future of AI and Humanity
The interview concluded with Altman reflecting on the world his newborn son will inherit — one where AI will exceed human intelligence. “My kid will never be smarter than AI. They will never grow up in a world where products and services are not incredibly smart, incredibly capable,” he said. Anderson closed with a sobering observation: “Over the next few years, you’re going to have some of the biggest opportunities, the biggest moral challenges, the biggest decisions to make of perhaps any human in history.”
Altman’s TED appearance comes at a critical juncture for OpenAI and the broader AI industry, facing mounting legal challenges and pushing the boundaries of what AI can do. The company must navigate competing tensions between advancing AI technology, ensuring safety, balancing profit motives with societal benefit, and respecting creative rights while democratizing creative tools.
