Sam Altman started 2025 with a bold declaration: OpenAI has figured out how to create artificial general intelligence (AGI), a term commonly understood as the point where AI systems can comprehend, learn, and perform any intellectual task that a human can.
In a reflective blog post published over the weekend, he also said the first wave of AI agents could join the workforce this year, marking what he describes as a pivotal moment in technological history.
Altman painted a picture of OpenAI’s journey from a quiet research lab to a company that claims to be on the brink of creating AGI.
The timeline seems ambitious—perhaps too ambitious—while ChatGPT celebrated its second birthday just over a month ago, Altman suggests the next paradigm of AI models capable of complex reasoning is already here.
From there, it’s all about integrating near-human AI into society until AI beats us at everything.
Wen AGI, Wen ASI?
Altman’s elaboration on what AGI implies remained vague, and his timeline predictions raised eyebrows among AI researchers and industry veterans.
“We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it,” Altman wrote. “We believe that, in 2025, we may see the first AI agents ‘join the workforce’ and materially change the output of companies.”
Altman’s explanation is vague because there is no standardized definition of …
