OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence has already arrived.
On July 27, 2026, during the program Good Morning America First Look, reporter Sophie Flay reported on his words. Altman called this the point of singularity—a pivotal moment when AI begins to develop so rapidly that it changes the way people work and live.
"We are, you could say, in the singularity now. This is the moment," Altman said in the report. Just ten years ago, such a concept seemed like a distant and improbable dream.
The statement came on the eve of Altman's visit to the White House, where he plans to present OpenAI's latest model and discuss its application and regulation.
Singularity in this context means the point where AI surpasses human intelligence. Hollywood has depicted such scenarios in films for decades, but now the conversation has moved into real politics and business.
In an interview with the podcast Relentless (published in late July 2026) and in the accompanying essay "The Gentle Singularity," Sam Altman revealed several extremely interesting and important theses about what the advent of singularity actually means and what to expect next:
1. "We are now seriously discussing this over dinner"
Altman admitted that 10 years ago, the concept of singularity seemed like a distant and improbable dream to him and his colleagues, which they discussed "over dinner in a not-so-serious way." Now, he stated: "We are, you could say, in the singularity now. I’ve been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it will be incredibly, hugely positive and great for the world."
2. A clear timeline of AI capabilities
He outlined specific milestones of development that are already happening or will happen in the coming years:
- 2025: The emergence of AI agents capable of performing real cognitive work (e.g., coding will never be the same).
- 2026: The emergence of systems capable of independently finding new scientific insights and making discoveries.
- 2027: The emergence of robots capable of performing complex physical tasks in the real world.
3. The "larval stage" of recursive self-improvement
The most intriguing technical point: Altman noted that advanced AI can now be used to accelerate research in AI itself. "If we can do a decade of research in a year or a month, then the pace of progress will obviously be completely different." He called this a "larval version of recursive self-improvement" (where AI helps create even smarter AI).
4. Criticism of "Doomers"
Altman harshly criticized other leaders in the AI industry who constantly paint frightening scenarios of the future and call for strict restrictions due to risks (this is perceived as a direct jab at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei). Altman stated: "I also think some of the alternative visionary pictures that other companies are painting are quite scary. I will do everything I can to resist that and to prevent that from becoming a reality."
5. The Concept of "The Gentle Singularity"
Contrary to Hollywood scenarios like "The Terminator," Altman asserts that in practice, life during the singularity will feel "impressive, but manageable." "From a relativistic point of view, the singularity happens bit by bit, and the merge happens slowly. We are climbing a long arc of exponential technological progress; looking forward, it always seems vertical, and looking back, it’s flat, but it’s one smooth curve."
6. Two main conditions for a positive future
According to him, to avoid negative scenarios, humanity needs to solve two problems:
- The Alignment Problem: Ensuring that AI acts in accordance with our long-term collective interests (unlike social media algorithms that exploit our short-term weaknesses).
- Accessibility: Making superintelligence cheap, widely available, and preventing its concentration in the hands of a single person, company, or country.
7. Abundance as the new reality
Altman emphasized that in the 2030s, "intelligence and energy—ideas and the ability to bring them to life—will become wildly abundant." Since these two factors have limited human progress for centuries, their abundance (with good management) will theoretically allow us to achieve "anything"—from breakthroughs in high-energy physics to the creation of brain-computer interfaces.
Summary: Altman did not just state the fact of the singularity's arrival but also attempted to strip the term of its science fiction and apocalyptic connotations, presenting it as a manageable, albeit extremely rapid, stage of exponential growth that OpenAI intends to control and make accessible to everyone.
