Just before ChatGPT was placed before the public in November 2022, OpenAI’s head of sales was informed that the company would be quietly releasing a “low-key research preview,” which wouldn’t affect sales. Over 180 million users later, it’s fair to say that forecasting the world of AI is difficult.
But it wasn’t only ChatGPT’s success that was hard to foresee. An escalating AI race between companies and between countries; a U.S. Senate forum on the topic of “Doomsday Scenarios”; a dramatic boardroom ouster at the world’s most prominent AI company—these events would have been extremely difficult to anticipate a year ago.
AI’s rapid technological advancement—and the wild and varied reactions to it—make predicting the future of the field not for the weak of heart.
