Even OpenAI's chairman struggles to keep up with AI: Bret Taylor calls the once-in-a-lifetime boom ‘insane'

Time of India

3 days ago

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If you've been struggling to keep pace with the whirlwind that is Artificial Intelligence , you're in good company. Bret Taylor , Chairman of OpenAI , the organization at the epicenter of the AI revolution , admits he too is barely able to stay afloat amid the relentless stream of breakthroughs.In a candid conversation hosted by South Park Commons with Aditya Agarwal, Taylor said, 'I am the chairman of OpenAI. I run a fairly successful applied AI company, and I have trouble keeping up with everything going on.' His words offer a rare moment of vulnerability in a world that often presents AI experts as unflappable oracles.What makes his admission particularly striking is his vantage point. Taylor is not just on the frontline — he's in the command tower. From overseeing OpenAI's advancements to observing the competition's rapid rise, his plate is full. And yet, even he finds it dizzying. 'I'm probably most well situated in the world almost to do so… So it just feels insane to me right now,' he added.Taylor sees this turbulent moment as historic — and oddly poetic. 'I think it's a privilege... I hope you're enjoying being in this moment because... I think our society will be very different 10 years from now,' he said, reflecting on how rare it is to consciously live through such a transformative era. 'I pinch myself every day.'Indeed, the AI domain is experiencing something akin to a gold rush — except instead of panning rivers, companies are mining data and releasing new models almost weekly. OpenAI, once the undisputed leader, is now facing heated competition. Google's Gemini, Elon Musk's Grok, and emerging Chinese open-source platforms like DeepSeek and Kimi have challenged its dominance with increasingly capable models.Even on the product side, innovation is relentless. ChatGPT has become the fifth most visited website globally, but it's far from alone. New AI tools tackling niche tasks are sprouting up daily. OpenAI reportedly even attempted to acquire Windsurf, a rising AI startup — a sign of how closely it watches the ecosystem.Despite this pace, Taylor offers a reassuring message: humans aren't being pushed out of the equation just yet. Speaking to Business Insider, he argued that formal computer science education remains more relevant than ever. 'Studying computer science is a different answer than learning to code, but I would say I still think it's extremely valuable,' he said.Taylor emphasized that such degrees instill systems thinking — a way of understanding how components interact in complex systems, which remains vital for innovation. He pointed out how topics like Big O notation, cache misses, and randomized algorithms teach the kind of structured logic that no AI model can fully replicate.Echoing Taylor's view is none other than Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. In conversations on The Tonight Show, Gates predicted that programming will "remain a human job for at least a century.' His reason? Writing software isn't about typing code; it's about pattern recognition, judgment, and making creative leaps.Tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT may streamline debugging and accelerate development, but Gates insists, 'They are power chisels, not replacement carpenters.' AI may help you shape the material, but the blueprint still comes from the human mind.