Phase 3 starts now, Sam Altman says every human will have personal AGI soon

OpenAI says it is entering "Phase Three" of its AI journey, shifting focus from building advanced AI to making it affordable and widely accessible. According to the company, in this phase, it will focus on bringing personal AGI to every human. The announcement comes ahead of its IPO.

In Short

• OpenAI confidentially files for IPO
• The company says it is entering third phase for growth and expansion
• In this phase, the company wants to make AI affordable to everyone

AI is getting expensive. At least, that is what many companies and users are feeling as their token bills continue to climb. OpenAI, however, says it wants to make AI cheaper and easier to use. CEO Sam Altman has announced that the company is entering its "third phase", a stage where the company will be focused on making advanced AI more affordable, accessible and useful for everyone. According to OpenAI, the goal now is not just to build smarter AI, but to make sure more people can actually use it in their everyday lives.

In a blog post titled ‘Built to benefit everyone: our plan’, Altman and OpenAI Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki compared AI's potential impact to the commercialisation of electricity in the early 20th century. Just as electricity eventually became widely available and transformed everyday life, OpenAI believes AI should become abundant, affordable, safe and easy enough for every person and organisation to benefit from.

"Now we are entering the third phase," the company said. According to OpenAI, the first phase was focused on research towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), while the second phase began when its research reached the real world through products such as ChatGPT.

The third phase, Altman says, is about making advanced AI — often referred to as AGI — available to as many people as possible, rather than limiting it to a handful of companies or governments. AGI is generally described as an AI system with human-like cognitive abilities that can think, learn and solve problems across a wide range of tasks in a way that is similar to humans.

OpenAI files confidentially for IPO

The plans for this third phase come at a time when OpenAI has also confirmed that it has confidentially filed a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, formally beginning the process for a potential initial public offering (IPO).

OpenAI's IPO plans come just days after rival Anthropic also confidentially submitted paperwork for a potential public offering on June 1. Anthropic recently raised funding at a valuation of around $965 billion, making it one of the most valuable AI companies in the world. Depending on regulatory approvals and market conditions, the company could make its public market debut later this year.

For OpenAI as well, the filing does not mean the company will hit the stock market anytime soon. However, it does suggest that an IPO is part of OpenAI's long-term plans as it enters what Altman calls its third phase of growth.

OpenAI wants AI to solve real-world problems

The company argues that AI should not exist simply as a technological breakthrough. Instead, it should help people solve real-world problems, whether that means understanding a medical bill, learning a new skill, starting a business, caring for an ageing parent or making better financial decisions.

As OpenAI puts it: "The point is what people can do with it." The company says AI can help people navigate medical bills, learn new skills, start small businesses, care for ageing parents, understand legal or financial decisions, turn ideas into reality and even make scientific discoveries.

According to OpenAI, the real challenge is no longer just building powerful AI systems but turning those capabilities into practical tools that people can use every day.

At the same time, Altman acknowledged that AI must remain safe and under human control. OpenAI said it does not believe the future involves "entirely automating everything". Instead, people will continue to play a critical role in setting goals, exercising judgement and deciding how powerful systems should be used.

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