Softbank CEO says 'super AI' will arrive in 2035 and cost $9T

Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire behind Softbank, has predicted that an artificial superintelligence 10,000 times smarter than a human brain will be created within about a decade - but at quite a cost. Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, Son said that a scaled-up version of AI could …

[ecofeco]

$9 TRILLION?!

$9 trillion buys a lot of grade school buildings, better teacher salaries, and college educations.

But that's just crazy commie talk, amiright?

[karlkarl]

In a century we still won't have come close to achieving "AI". So what the hell is Super AI?

You can try writing "super" all over your startup's pitchdeck but I am fairly sure investors will see right through it ;)

(Or at the very least they will ask for 80% share in the company for five "super" bitcoin)

[Michael Hoffmann]

And if that goes on a direct extension of current LLMs, it STILL won't be *intelligent*. You just end up with a massively magnified miscounts of Rs in Strawberries. (or Ms in mammaries, if I wanted to go insane on alliteration).

Top that off with exponentially magnified GIGO and the thing will burn out under its own "weight" of nonsense.

Having been thrown into an "AI" project, due to execs having guzzled the Kool Aid by the hectoliters, and having had to learn just how naked the man behind the curtain is, I've known before seen something more aptly described by garbage-in-garbage-out.

[Paul Herber]

'insane on alliteration'

With an LLM let's make that illiteration.

[Ian Johnston]

Remind me how much Softbank pissed away on cryptocurrency scams ...

[GBE]

Remind me how much Softbank pissed away on cryptocurrency scams ...

And on renting out office space below cost.

WeWork never had even a remotely plausible path to profitability, but Masayoshi Son pissed $13 Billion down that rat hole.

[Ian Johnston]

He and his company get a lot of well deserved mentions on Patrick Boyle's highly entertaining YouTube channel.

[Howard Sway]

it will require 200 million chips

If any more proof were needed that AI has just become a pointlessly expensive dick measuring contest for megalomaniac billionaires, this article has just provided it.

[ecofeco]

Re: it will require 200 million chips

Exactly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ho-Hum here we go again ... again !!!

Basically the pitch was as follows:

1. Someone is going to get very 'Rich' and very 'Powerful' on the back of AI !!!

2. So keep throwing your money at me and others (but mainly me !!!) to achieve this 'soon' !!!

3. I want to be the person who achieves item 1.

4. Are you still here ? Stop thinking about what I said and start throwing vast amounts of money at me because I just told you 1. !!!

:)

[Anonymous Coward]

Wework

Do I need to explain that further?

[CowHorseFrog]

If he was chinese i would say this idiot was the son of someone big in the ccp... if he was russian i would say he earnt his spot because he was the son in law of vlad, im stuck how this guy got where he is.

[CowHorseFrog]

He must have lots of NVidia shares.... no conflict of interest at all.

[munnoch]

Roughly when in 2035?

In case I plan something and I'm out when it arrives...

He already invented the worlds largest reality distortion machine. I wonder how many GW it takes to keep that running... What a dick.

[Pascal Monett]

"$9 trillion is not too big"

Oh ? Then put up the money yourself and shut up about it.

[Zippy´s Sausage Factory]

"Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, Son said that a scaled-up version of AI could add around 5 percent of global economic output by 2035"

What seems to escape these billionaires is the thought that economic output can only be sustained if there are people to buy it. And if you ask me* the AI sack-'em-all race-to-the-bottom is more likely to cause a worldwide economic depression and authoritarian dictatorships rather than usher in the promised tech bro utopia.

[ecofeco]

As if Big Brother cares.

[heyrick]

an artificial superintelligence 10,000 times smarter than a human brain

I think it depends which human brain. There are some around here who are barely distinguishable from current LLM technology...

[Locomotion69]

Re: an artificial superintelligence 10,000 times smarter than a human brain

Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper!

[Wang Cores]

The best use for "AI" is giving the suits a Skynet simulation and then sending them new messages from a "benevolent AI who predicted this" that tells them to go to their bunkers to wait out the nuclear exchanges.

Meanwhile the rest of us mortals can go about resolving actual problems.

[ecofeco]

I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

That would be the really funny part. An AI that instantly sees billionaires, and their sycophants for what they are and judges them... lacking. It then takes action to strip them of all power.

[Anonymous Coward]

And we can conveniently stop worrying about man-made climate change ... after all it will have served its purpose by then.