India set to become OpenAI’s largest market, says CEO Sam Altman

India is expected to become the largest market for OpenAI in the near future, CEO Sam Altman said on Thursday, according to NDTV.

Speaking at AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India, Altman said India is already the company’s second-largest market outside the United States.

He described the pace of change in AI as rapid and accelerating. He said that two years ago, AI systems could barely solve high school-level mathematics, about a year ago they became proficient at it, and as recently as last week, they were capable of handling research-level mathematics and discovering new problems that humans had not yet identified.

He noted the improvement demonstrates how quickly the technology is advancing.

Altman said the world is entering what he described as an exponential phase of technological growth. At present, one skilled software engineer supported by AI can perform work that previously required a small team.

In the coming years, a single individual could match the output of a large team and eventually even an entire company’s engineering workforce. He described the speed of change as unprecedented.

A significant amount of intellectual capacity is now concentrated in the data centres that power AI systems, and that the gap between machine-assisted and human-only effort will continue to widen. However, Altman views this development as an opportunity.

With AI tools, people of all ages can create new ideas, build products and generate value at a scale that was not previously possible.

Altman added that entrepreneurial energy around the world appears stronger than ever, and said there has never been a period like the present, expressing hope that the momentum would continue.