OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says his son probably won't attend college

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is trending for an interesting take on his son’s education. On the most recent episode of This Past Weekend with Theo Von, which was released on July 23, Altman joined the eponymous comedian and gave his take on what the future may have in store for the education system as a whole.

Von first posited that Altman thought his son would attend university, to which Altman was quick to concede,

“Probably not.”

Sam Altman, a college dropout himself, then elaborated on the sentiment by explaining that today’s children are already growing up in an environment where technology is smarter than they are.

“My kid will never ever be smarter than an AI, that will never happen. Kids born a few years ago had a brief period of time [where they could be], but my kid will never be smarter," he said.

This line of reasoning, in conjunction with the notion that college is no longer a consensus-winning proposition in these times, would suggest, in Altman’s words, that,

“Education’s going to feel a lot different [in 18 years].”

Sam Altman opens up on This Past Weekend with Theo Von

Subsequently, in the interview, Sam Altman was asked how parenting could evolve to match the changes we’re experiencing in society with the advent of AI and the growing scope of its integration into our day-to-day lives. His response was thoughtful and provided a lot of hope for the younger generations.

“I actually think the kids will be fine, I’m worried about the parents. If you look at the history of the world here when there’s a new technology, like, people that grow up with it, they’re always fluent. They always figure out what to do. They always learn the new kind of jobs. But if you’re like a 50 year old and you have to kind of learn to do things in a very different way, that doesn’t always work.”

Despite this, Sam Altman did voice some concern for today’s youth who have unlimited access to boundless tech.

"I do have worries about kids and technology. Like I think this scrolling, the kind of like you know short video feed dopamine hit. It feels like it’s probably messing with kids’ brain development in a super deep way. So it’s not that I have no worries, I have super deep worries about what technology is doing to kids. But in terms of kids’ ability to like be prepared for the future, and use the new technology, they seem really good at that.”

The advent and almost instant prominence of AI will continue to be a talking point with regulation at its core. The generations who are being born within this technological boom seem most fitting to carry it forward.

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