Sam Altman Compares GPT-5 to the Manhattan Project: “What Have We Done?”
So, this is one of those moments in tech where the person at the center of the storm actually pauses and asks—“What have we done?” That was the haunting question posed by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, in a recent podcast when he opened up about the upcoming GPT-5 model. And his tone wasn’t triumphant—it was unsettled. He even went as far as to compare its development to the Manhattan Project, the infamous World War II initiative that led to the atomic bomb. That’s a big statement. And when someone like Altman, who’s been pushing the boundaries of AI for years, makes that kind of comparison, it really makes you stop and think.
He revealed that during internal testing, GPT-5 did something that shook him: it solved a problem he himself couldn’t figure out. That single moment, he said, left him feeling “useless.” And not because the model was buggy or out of control—but because it was just that capable. That smart. That autonomous. It triggered what he called a “personal crisis of relevance.”
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Now, GPT-5 hasn’t even been fully released yet—it's expected this August—but the level of introspection from its own creator is telling. Altman’s comparison to the Manhattan Project wasn’t just about power or innovation—it was about unintended consequences. Like how the scientists in the 1940s built something before fully grasping what it would mean for the world. And that's where we are again with AI. It’s not just about new tech. It’s about entering a space where machines start to outperform humans—not in games or tasks, but in thinking.
He also warned about real-world misuse, especially in fraud. GPT-5 is so advanced, it’s already being exploited by criminals to commit large-scale identity theft and fraud schemes. Security systems like CAPTCHA are being bypassed easily. Scams that used to take days now take minutes. As Haywood Talcove from LexisNexis pointed out, “Criminals are using it better than we are.”
Despite all that, the pressure is still on to commercialize. Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI, is reportedly urging faster rollouts and greater enterprise use. Internally, there’s talk of shifting to a for-profit model and possibly even declaring AGI—Artificial General Intelligence—sooner than planned. All of this adds to the tension between innovation and responsibility.
So, here we are—with a tool that could revolutionize work, science, and creativity, but also challenge society in ways we’re not ready for. And even its creators are feeling the weight of that. Altman’s question, “What have we done?” isn’t rhetorical. It’s a wake-up call.
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