Altman predicts small teams will achieve step-function productivity gains from AI
Sam Altman · Sam Altman: The Future of OpenAI, ChatGPT's Origins, and Building AI Hardware · Y Combinator · Jun 21, 2025 · at 26:05
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks with Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan about the societal impact of AI tools and the reduction of human coordination costs.
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“One of the things that will feel most different about These next 10 years versus these last 10 years is how much a single person or a small group of people with a lot of agency can get done, and that is a bigger deal than it sounds like because coordination costs are huge, and when we can empower people with more knowledge, more tools, more resources, whatever, I think we won't just see like a little bit more stuff get built, but because of these kind of coordination costs across people, we'll see like a real stuff change. So I think the amount that one person or a small team get done, the satisfaction in doing that, and most importantly, like the quality of stuff we'll all get for each other will be quite remarkable.”
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