AI that is 10,000-times smarter than humans will be here in a decade, according to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, speaking on Friday (21 June).
In a rare public appearance, the charismatic Softbank CEO explained how he believed artificial general intelligence (AGI), AI that is smarter than humans, is just three-to-five years away.
Son said AGI would likely be just ten-times smarter than humans and said it will be arriving earlier than he anticipated.
Son said if AGI is not massively smarter than humans “then we don’t need to change the way of living, we don’t need to change the structure of human lifestyle”.
However, ASI, which Son said will feature different models talking to each other like neurons in a brain, will lead to AI being dramatically smarter than human life.
“But when it comes to ASI it is a totally different story. [With] ASI, you will see a big improvement,” Son said.
The CEO spoke openly on Friday, claiming that he felt like he had not achieved anything of note in his life.
“Two years ago, I am getting old, rest of my life is limited, but I haven’t done anything yet and I cried so hard,” he said.
Son claimed that creating ASI has become his life purpose.
“SoftBank was founded for what purpose? For what purpose was Masa Son born? It may sound strange, but I think I was born to realise ASI. I am super serious about it,” Son said.
In April, it was reported that SoftBank would invest $960m by 2025 to create state-of-the-art GenAI.
SoftBank‘s computing network will likely be the most powerful in Japan once the investment is completed, according to the report, as the company looks to create powerful specialised Japanese GenAI.
The graphics processing units used to develop Softbank’s GenAI technology will be bought from Nvidia, the largest chip designer in the US.
GlobalData forecasts that the overall AI market will be worth $909bn by 2030, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35% between 2022 and 2030.
In the GenAI space, revenues are expected to grow from $1.8bn in 2022 to $33bn in 2027, a CAGR of 80%.
