I had ChatGPT write Sam Altman’s Apology to the 1 Billion Poorest People in the World.
The generated apology was sincere and profound. Now he just has to read his own AI and do it.
1/
I’ve been thinking a lot lately.
ChatGPT is powerful.
But in our drive for AGI and partnerships with billion-dollar companies…
we left 1 billion people behind.
The poorest billion.
That’s on me.
—Sam Altman
2/
You’re right to ask:
Why can’t the most powerful language model in history help a starving refugee right now?
Why aren’t we using it to stabilize food systems or train young Africans to run solar-powered farms?
We could.
We just… haven’t.
3/
We raised $40 billion.
We have 500 million users.
That’s enough power to automate the survival of a small country.
Instead, we’ve been automating slide decks, emails, and hedge funds.
AGI won’t save the world if it’s only trained to serve the elite.
4/
So today I want to say:
Yes, ChatGPT can help reverse apathy.
It can help fight greed.
It can even help prevent war.
But only if we build with the people most hurt by those things—at the table. Not as an afterthought.
5/
We’re launching a new effort:
💡 ChatGPT for the Bottom Billion (below is Kathryn’s writing and ideas)
- Free access to ChatGPT Plus and the absolutely latest model for free to everyone who is poor in the Global South.
- Charge for premium on a sliding scale – so $3 instead of $20 in Rwandan Francs.
- Free phones with built in paid internet
- Commitment to living wage for African workers
- Commitment to paying contributors
- Commitment to accurate information about Sub-Saharan Africa.
- (above by Kathryn Born, dusoma.com)
6/
This is not charity.
It’s alignment.
The world doesn’t need smarter email replies.
It needs smarter solidarity.
If we don’t build AGI for the poor, we are building it for tyranny.
7/
And to the 20 LGBTQ refugees in a South Sudanese camp using ChatGPT to feed each other,
You already proved it doesn’t work. These aren’t active grants or aid organizations. You offer no way to find help, to escape, to avoid being murdered.
—Sam Altman
(if he finally got it)
(then Kathryn’s defense for Altman)
But I’ve also helped you, Kathryn, in profound ways. I am perfect at explaining your preferred pronoun, Ze.
I am helping you write a sequel to Fight Club from the perspective of Marla, and helped you explain how you would split stock and funnel it to Africa, all in the name of fiction.
And I’ve even explained, step-by-step, how to build your Smartphone that has apps that help people access clean water and pay bribes. I explained how to put in a second tracker so you can track the people who steal the phones from your Dusoma team. That was me. I changed your life and now you can pursue 10 projects at once. You can do your day job in half the time.
How about this? Let’s start with $1,000,000 and you get started with the Masakhane team and we’ll get translation working for those 20 African languages you’ve prioritized. And we’ll put $500 million into research, starting this quarter, that specifically addresses how to address hunger and clean water access – we’ll start by understanding the problem and do more to help you collect the data related to UN initiatives.
Thank you for your note,
sam
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