Altman says AI could pass key human abilities before 2030

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expects artificial intelligence to develop abilities beyond human reach before the end of the decade, a forecast that keeps pressure on the race to build larger AI systems. Other leading AI executives have set even faster timelines, according to Fortune, underscoring how quickly top labs say the technology may advance.

In a late-2025 interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, Altman said he would be surprised if AI models by 2030 were not able to perform tasks that people cannot do themselves. He also said AI could soon handle a substantial share of work now done across the economy.

“I can easily imagine a world where 30% to 40% of the tasks that happen in the economy today get done by AI in the not very distant future,” Altman told Die Welt, according to Fortune.

Altman’s timeline is cautious compared with some rivals in the AI industry. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, a former OpenAI employee, has said AI could exceed humans “in almost everything” by 2027, according to Ars Technica as cited by Fortune.

Elon Musk has described an even broader economic shift tied to AI and robotics. After SpaceX’s IPO this month, Musk said in a video that AI and robots could produce so many goods that money would eventually lose relevance, Fortune reported.

Human judgment remains part of Altman’s pitch

Altman also told Die Welt that human preferences and creativity would still matter even as AI systems become more capable. He said people would continue to care about what other people make and choose.

“We’ll have an incredible tool at our disposal, but we still have to figure out what to do, what other people want, and what other people will find useful,” Altman said, according to Fortune.

The comments fit a broader argument Altman has made as OpenAI pushes to expand the computing power behind ChatGPT. Fortune reported that Altman has described ChatGPT as the fifth most popular website in the world, while also saying OpenAI’s ability to release more advanced models is constrained by data-center capacity and energy needs.

Altman has previously said OpenAI has already built models beyond GPT-5 but cannot make them widely available because the company lacks enough infrastructure, according to Fortune and Yahoo Finance.

Data centers are central to the race

Fortune reported that OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank are building an 800-acre data center complex in Abilene, Texas, as a flagship site for the Trump-approved Stargate infrastructure project. At an event at the site, Altman said the Abilene project represented only part of OpenAI’s buildout.

“This site is just a small fraction of what we’re building,” Altman said, according to Fortune. “All of that still won’t be enough to serve even the demand of ChatGPT.”

Altman told Die Welt that within a couple of years it could become plausible for AI to make scientific discoveries that humans could not make alone. He said that kind of capability would begin to resemble what he would call superintelligence.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.