Sam Altman says OpenAI is developing a ‘legitimate AI researcher’ by 2028 that can discover new science on its own

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has announced that the company plans to develop a fully automated AI researcher by 2028 in a bid to accelerate scientific discovery and advance towards superintelligence.

“For the long term quality of life and improvement and change in society, AI that can autonomously discover new science or help people discover new science faster will be, I think, one of the most important things and something that we’re really trying to wrap our heads around.” Altman said in a live-stream.

OpenAI says it will first achieve an internal level artificial research assistatn by September 2026 and then develop a full fledged researcher by 2028.

The AI startup’s Chief scientist Jakub Pachoki in the same live-stream said that “deep learning systems are less than a decade away from superintelligence”

OpenAI says its AI research assistant will be able to tackle complex research autonomously and could potentially lead to breakthroughs in fields like science and technology.

OpenAI transitions from non-profit:

The announcement about the new AI research assistant came at the same time when OpenAI announced that it had completed its restructuring from a non-profit to a public benefit corporation.

The non-profit would continue to hold around $130 billion worth of stake in the newly created entity. Notably, the AI startup also said that Altman would not have any stake in the newly created public benefit corporation.

Meanwhile, Microsoft would hold around 27% of the PBC, which amount to about $135 billion in stake. The Windows maker will have access to OpenAI’s AI models till 2032 even if independent experts verify that OpenAI has achieved AGI with its models. The earlier agreement stated that Microsoft would only have access to ChatGPT maker’s models till AGI was achieved or till 2030.

​The new agreement also states that OpenAI has agreed to purchase an additional $250 billion of Microsoft Azure services. However, Microsoft would no longer have a right of first refusal to be OpenAI’s compute partner.

​In a blog post, both the companies said that a revenue sharing agreement will stay in effect until an expert panel verifies that AGI has been achieved with OpenAI models. Microsoft will receive 20% of OpenAI’s revenue, as per a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources.

The restructuring is expected to help OpenAI streamline raising capital which was earlier said to be a hudle due to the company’s unusual corporate strucuture. With the ChatGPT maker competing against the likes of Meta, Google, Anthropic and others in the AI race, there is always a need of additional capital and computing power in the race for reaching superintelligence first.