Sam Altman Envisions AI as a Utility, Raising Concerns

2026-03-15 2026-03-15

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Sam Altman Says Intelligence Will Be a Utility, and He’s Just the Man to Collect the Bills

Expert Analysis

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, speaking at BlackRock's U.S. Infrastructure Summit, articulated a future where intelligence becomes a utility, akin to electricity or water, with people purchasing it on a metered basis. He expressed a fundamental belief in the abundance of intelligence, aiming for it to be "too cheap to meter," borrowing a phrase from the energy industry.

However, the phrase "too cheap to meter" carries an ironic undertone, given its failure to materialize in the energy sector and the current reality of AI expansion driving skyrocketing energy costs for communities near data centers. Altman's core point is that AI companies currently sell "tokens," and as demand scales, compute becomes finite, leading to either higher per-unit charges or an inability to meet demand.

Avoiding a future where AI access comes with a hefty bill necessitates a rapid expansion of processing power, which itself is not cheap. OpenAI recently pulled back from a planned expansion of its Stargate project in Texas due to financing issues. The author suggests that Altman's framing of intelligence as a "utility" tacitly implies a need for government subsidies, similar to other utilities.

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Key Takeaway: Sam Altman envisions AI as a metered utility, but the immense energy and financial costs, coupled with the need for massive infrastructure expansion, suggest a potential reliance on government subsidies, echoing past 'too big to fail' discussions.
Author: AJ Dellinger