SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son reiterated his belief in the imminent arrival of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) on Tuesday, saying that it would require hundreds of billions of dollars in investment to realise. According to him, the currently available Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is at the same level as a human brain.
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Artificial Super intelligence
Son began by saying, "...Only focused on AI." He believes that AI will change humankind's future forever. "I want to make humankind's future better, happier, a fantastic future. That's what I'm interested in."
However, according to his definition, artificial superintelligence will be 10,000 times smarter than a human brain and will exist by 2035, Son told an audience of global business, technology, and finance leaders at a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He warned that not regulating AI (superpower) could be "super dangerous." Of course, there are always bad elements that could misuse AI. However, these bad elements typically lack the capital to sponsor the technology. There isn't enough money available to support the bad actors.
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Investment Predictions
He predicted that generative AI will require USD 9 trillion in cumulative capital expenditure for data centers and chips in the future, adding that he believes chip maker Nvidia is undervalued based on this projection. Nvidia is just one example, he said, predicting that AI spending will significantly boost Nvidia's chip business over the next decade.
"I think Nvidia is undervalued because the future is much bigger," Son said at the Future Investment Initiative conference.
Son stated that achieving this level of AI will require upwards of 200 million GPU chips and USD 9 trillion in cumulative capex spending by companies.
"I say it's still very reasonable capex. USD 9 trillion is not too big; maybe too small," Son said.
The SoftBank CEO calculated that if artificial superintelligence replaces just 5 percent of GDP in 10 years, it has the potential to deliver as much as USD 4 trillion in profits annually.
Softbank has pointed its focus on investing in AI companies, recently contributing USD 500 million to OpenAI's funding round.
Son mentioned that he is saving up funds "so I can make the next big move," but did not provide any details regarding his investment plans.
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Future Prospects for Arm and AI Robotics
"Arm is our core company. Arm has 99 percent or 100 percent of the market share in all mobile phone chips. Arm is going to become an AI-centric chip company very soon," Son said.
"But there are AI robotics that I'm super interested in. The convergence of artificial super intelligence and robotics would create a tremendous product—it's a fascinating thing," Son explained.
