The Altman Effect: How AI Will Turn Inflation to Dust and Make Us Rich

The Altman Effect: How AI Will Turn Inflation to Dust and Make Us Richer

While we're getting used to the idea that each trip to the store costs more than the last, Sam Altman has decided to swap his role as a technological evangelist for that of an economic prophet. The CEO of OpenAI confidently declares that artificial intelligence will become the main cure for inflation, triggering massive deflation. His vision of the future is built on a fundamental rethinking of what comprises the cost of any product or service. In Altman's world, the two main pillars of the economy — intelligence and energy — are trending toward zero cost, which inevitably pulls all other prices downward.

This rhetoric didn't appear out of nowhere. After the publication of his manifesto on the Age of Intelligence, it became clear that OpenAI no longer wants to be merely a company creating chatbots. They are building the infrastructure of a new world. Altman argues that when AI can perform cognitive tasks faster and better than humans, the cost of labor in the value creation chain will begin to drop rapidly. Add to this his personal investments in nuclear fusion and energy extraction startups, and the picture becomes crystal clear. He believes in a world where the production of goods will no longer depend on expensive human-hours and scarce mineral resources.

It's interesting to observe how Altman links technological progress with the personal wealth of every inhabitant of the planet. In his view, deflation is not an economic crisis, as we were taught in textbooks of the last century, but a way to make money "more valuable." If today for a hypothetical dollar you buy one apple, then in the era of total AI you'll be able to buy ten with it.

This sounds like digital utopia, but behind this forecast lies cold calculation. OpenAI is currently actively attracting billions of dollars in investments, and the promise of global abundance is the best way to convince funds that their investments will pay off many times over, even if the company itself is still burning money faster than it generates it.

However, in this beautiful new world, there is one serious catch that Altman prefers to mention only in passing. Deflation caused by the replacement of human labor inevitably raises the question: where will people get the money that is supposed to become more valuable? If AI does the work for us, the traditional model of earning breaks down. Sam often mentions universal basic income, but so far it looks like an attempt to extinguish the fire that he himself is stoking. The transition period from the current inflationary economy to the deflationary paradise could prove extremely painful for those whose professions AI will devalue first.

We should not forget that right now we're observing the opposite process. The cost of training models is growing exponentially, Nvidia is setting capitalization records due to chip shortages, and electricity bills for data centers are causing even tech giants to shudder. So far, AI is an incredibly expensive toy that requires colossal resources. Altman is playing the long game, trying to convince regulators and society that current spending is merely temporary costs before a leap into a world where material goods become accessible to everyone. This is a bold claim, especially given how OpenAI is gradually transforming from a nonprofit organization into a full-fledged corporate money-making machine.

Ultimately, Altman's forecasts are an invitation into the future where artificial intelligence takes on the burden of providing for humanity. This is an enticing prospect, in which money regains its status as a reliable store of value. But behind this idyllic picture lies a tectonic shift in the distribution of power. Whoever owns "intelligence" and "energy" effectively gets the keys to the world economy. And while Altman promises us deflation, he is simultaneously building one of the most influential monopolies in human history.

The bottom line: Sam Altman is selling us a dream of cheaper living to justify the colossal cost of creating AI. Will the world become cheaper, or will we simply switch our dependence from oil to computational power?