Advertisement
Opinion

Why would billionaires end world hunger when they can buy the fountain of youth?

OpenAI and the clash of the billionaire tech bros

Trying to explain AI to me is like trying to explain God to a horse. Words will be spoken and there might appear what seems, on the surface, some signals of sentience. But ultimately, I just want to eat something and jump over a hedge.

However, that doesn’t stop a desire to learn and understand. Not just to understand what it is, but, more broadly, why so many of the richest, most influential people in the world are losing their minds and betting the house on it. It can’t all be because they want to create a script for a fictionalised Willy Wonka event in Glasgow (still, to date, the most amusing and ill-delivered use of AI).

Just over a week ago, Elon Musk offered around $100bn (£80bn) to buy OpenAI. Even in the rarified world of tech bros that feels chunky. Was the offer made to annoy Sam Altman, his former ally and co-founder of OpenAI?

Altman, it is said, is keen to work a deal that would see him buy the for-profit part of the company for around $40bn. Obviously, trying to work out the reasoning behind any of Musk’s capricious decisions is a modern Gordian Knot. Still, it’s all part of the AI conundrum. 

Just a few weeks before the purchase offer, a report had been published outlining the growing success of OpenAI in longevity research. A new AI model had managed to vastly accelerate cell regeneration. There is more to it than this, involving new approaches to the Yamanaka factors, but as I’m going through the gears here like a veritable John von Neumann, we don’t have to dwell on this.

In essence, this science is leaping ahead with de-ageing. Not in the way of Bryan Johnson, the obscenely wealthy man spending $2m a year to de-age and potentially live forever – why Bryan, why so much effort for vanity – but in ways that can help millions of people. It is looking at how cells can replicate, potentially adding 10 years to the average human life, and also how this could help in organ replacement.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

The market in longevity is expected to reach $4.1bn by 2031. The OpenAI cell regeneration research is being conducted in tandem with a company called Retro Biosciences. A couple of years ago Sam Altman invested $180m into Retro Biosciences.

This, and Musk’s intervention, leads to some wider questions about intention. There are clear positive boosts for society, but ultimately, somebody is going to control the technologies. As fewer and fewer of the superwealthy control so much, it means, globally, their power expands.

Is that the endgame for them? Absolute power? Where does that leave the rest of us? Or are they, living so far from any day-to-day reality, trying to spend as much as they can so THEY can live for a very, very, very long time. Like contemporary cryogenics.

The other question is about how a lot of that wealth could otherwise be pointed. A few years ago, research by the German government estimated it would take $330bn to end world hunger. Regardless of this feeling like a reductive number without exact reasoning, even within a few billion of it, if Musk gave that away, he’d still have $50bn or so to build his big rockets or taunt his mates with hostile takeover attempts.

It feels like we’re at a hinge moment. Technologies are on the cusp of remarkable positive change for humanity. But we just don’t know the real cost. 

So, after sorting AI, next week I’ll be explaining the future of bitcoin and related investments.

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue.Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Never miss an issue

Take advantage of our special subscription offer. Subscribe from just £9.99 and never miss an issue.

Recommended for you

Read All
More and more poor children are missing school since Covid. Here's how to get them back in class
Martin Hodge

More and more poor children are missing school since Covid. Here's how to get them back in class

Just Stop Oil may be reviled – but their tactics reshaped the climate movement
Just Stop Oil
Sam Nadel

Just Stop Oil may be reviled – but their tactics reshaped the climate movement

This theatre company uses Jellycat toys to break barriers for children across the UK
The Noisy Dinosaur production from Toucan Theatre. Image of two cast members with jellycats
James Baldwin

This theatre company uses Jellycat toys to break barriers for children across the UK

People in poverty feel disconnected from democracy. But it doesn't have to be this way
Hannah Paylor

People in poverty feel disconnected from democracy. But it doesn't have to be this way

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue