Altman tells ADIPEC AI is now mostly smarter than top scientists and power is the bottleneck

Nov 2, 2026
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says advanced AI models can now outperform leading scientists and complete parts of many white collar jobs. He identifies electricity supply as the main constraint on further growth.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says advanced AI models are now mostly smarter than leading scientists and can perform significant parts of many white collar jobs, according to Anadolu Agency. He spoke at the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) on Monday. "At the start of this year, AI was mostly not as smart as our smartest scientist, and now it's mostly smarter than them," he said.

Altman said people must retain control over how AI is used, including decisions that require human judgment, creativity and accountability. He described AI as a tool that should serve people rather than decide what is best for them.

Altman identified electricity supply as the largest constraint on AI growth because computing infrastructure requires substantial physical power capacity. He said global token use has risen to about 100,000 tokens per person each month, while the largest institutional users consume about 500 billion tokens monthly.

Altman said around 80% of young people in the UAE use ChatGPT weekly. During the event, OpenAI announced agreements with G42 and ADNOC, which Anadolu describes as the first global deployment of OpenAI's frontier models by an energy company.

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