The Blubber

AI could mean free doctors and lawyers for everybody in 10 years, OpenAI investor Vinod Khosla has said.


In the coming 25 years, Vinod Khosla, an investor in OpenAI, envisions the availability of free professional services and humanlike robots facilitated by advancements in AI.

During a recent episode of Eric Newcomer's "Cerebral Valley Podcast," Khosla, a 68-year-old billionaire and venture capitalist, shared his predictions for the future of AI. He anticipates that within a decade, AI's capabilities will enable free access to services like doctors, tutors, and lawyers for everyone, granting widespread access to the legal system.

Looking further ahead to 2048, Khosla envisions the emergence of entire populations of bipedal robots, totaling a billion in number. He believes this development will lead to an industry surpassing the scale of today's automotive industry.

Expressing confidence in the exponential growth of AI, Khosla anticipates significant advancements with the introduction of GPT-5, the successor to OpenAI's GPT-4. He emphasizes that the true limits of AI capability have yet to be realized.

Contrary to fears of AI doomsday scenarios, including the idea of sentient AI with consciousness, Khosla encourages a focus on the positive impact AI can have on the world. He dismisses the notion of sentient AI as "nonsensical" and believes people should consider the benefits AI can bring to humanity.

Khosla's optimism extends to the transformative potential of AI in reinventing societal infrastructure and providing a resource-rich lifestyle for the global population. He sees AI as the key to achieving his vision of 24/7 access to near-free doctors and tutors for every child worldwide.

Having expressed his views on the potential displacement of jobs due to AI automation in healthcare in 2016, Khosla reaffirms his belief in AI's ability to transform labor and expertise. He envisions a future where AI automation frees humanity from the need to work, allowing individuals to choose when and how they engage in work.

While Khosla has been a vocal proponent of AI's revolutionary potential for years, he remains cautious about current valuations of AI startups, considering them overhyped. Despite his reservations, Khosla's investment in OpenAI and other AI startups underscores his commitment to the transformative impact he envisions for AI in the future.