New Technology More Advanced Than AI Could Completely Transform the World
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has already shaken the world with the innovations it offers. This technology is often blamed for the sluggish job market conditions.
Tech giants are rushing to lay off employees for efficiency and to focus investments on AI development. Many companies are beginning to adopt AI in their business operations, triggering a slowdown in hiring new staff.
On the other hand, developing AI that requires large-scale data centre infrastructure is feared to have a negative environmental impact, as it consumes vast amounts of electricity and water. Not to mention derivative effects such as the spread of disinformation on the internet facilitated by AI-enabled deepfakes.
Despite the many risks and drawbacks, AI continues to be developed because it is seen as capable of boosting productivity and economic growth. Since last year, there have been reports of further advancements beyond AI, known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
AGI is a form of artificial intelligence touted to have human-equivalent cognitive abilities. AGI can understand, learn, reason, and apply knowledge on par with humans to accomplish various intellectual tasks.
It could be said that if AGI is a smarter form of AI, it requires minimal human intervention to perform a wide range of tasks. This naturally brings greater concerns over broader impacts compared to AI.
On 26 April 2026, Sam Altman wrote on OpenAI’s official page about the company’s principles in developing AGI. Altman is a key figure in the AI adoption trend, following his company’s launch of ChatGPT, which rocked the world at the end of 2022.
In his latest post, Altman emphasised AI’s significant potential to improve human quality of life in various aspects.
“This technology, like previous technologies, will give humans more capabilities and control. What humans can do with AI will far surpass what humans could do with steam engines or electricity,” Altman said, quoted from OpenAI’s official page on Monday (27/4/2025).
However, Altman stated that AI’s maximum benefits might only be held by a handful of companies or certain parties. To address this, the company has issued five main principles for advancing AGI development, to ensure benefits reach all parties.
“Our mission is to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity,” he wrote. Here are the five principles that will guide OpenAI’s work in developing AGI, as outlined by Altman:
First, democratisation. Altman stressed that his company rejects the potential for AGI to be developed only by a select few. He said the company will provide access to everyone through a democratic process.
Second, empowerment. Altman believes AI can make humans happier and more prosperous, help them achieve their dreams, and society as a whole will benefit.
“The world is diverse and everyone has different needs. We want to give users the autonomy they need and enable as much as we can reasonably do,” he explained.
Third, universal prosperity. “By bringing easy-to-use AI systems with high computational power to everyone, we believe people will find new ways to create value and massively improve quality of life for everyone, especially through new scientific discoveries,” he explained.
This widespread prosperity is said to require assistance from various parties. Altman urged governments to reconsider new economic models that ensure everyone participates in value creation. He also underlined the importance of building large-scale AI infrastructure to curb the costs of developing new technologies.
Fourth, resilience. “AI will bring new risks, and we will work with other companies, ecosystems, governments, and society to address them. We will significantly leverage our foundation’s resources to support this work,” Altman said.
Fifth, adaptability. “We still believe that the only way to face highly unpredictable future challenges is to be prepared to update our positions as knowledge increases,” Altman wrote.
Furthermore, he acknowledged that OpenAI is now a much greater force in the world than a few years ago. Looking ahead, he promised the company would be transparent about when, how, and why its operational principles change.
“For example, while we are quite confident that universal prosperity will remain very important, we can imagine a future period where we might have to sacrifice some empowerment for greater resilience,” he stated.