Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks during the company's annual general meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, June 20, 2024. Son outlined ambitions to help create artificial intelligence thousands of times smarter than any human, making his remarks The most luxurious since the Japanese group began taking steps to shore up its finances after a series of inappropriate bets on startups.
Kosuke Okahara | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Artificial intelligence that is 10,000 times smarter than humans will exist within 10 years, Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said Friday, in a rare public appearance during which he questioned his purpose in life.
Son laid out his vision of a world characterized by artificial superintelligence, or ASI, as he called it.
The CEO spoke for the first time about another term — artificial general intelligence, or AGI — which broadly refers to artificial intelligence that is smarter than humans. Sun said this technology is likely to be one to 10 times smarter than humans, and will arrive within the next three to five years, earlier than he expected.
But if AGI is not smarter than humans, “we don't need to change the way we live, we don't need to change the structure of human lifestyle,” Sun said, according to a live translation of his comments on the site. Japanese, which was delivered during SoftBank's annual general shareholders' meeting.
“But when it comes to ASI, it's completely different. (With) ASI, you'll see a huge improvement.”
Sun discussed how the future will hold different ASI models interacting with each other, like neurons in the human brain. This will lead to artificial intelligence that is 10,000 times smarter than any human genius, according to Son.
SoftBank shares closed down more than 3% in Japan following the meeting.
Son is the founder of SoftBank, who rose to prominence after an early and profitable investment in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. SoftBank positioned itself as a technology visionary with the 2017 launch of the Vision Fund, a massive investment fund focused on backing technology companies. While some bets have been successful, there have also been several notable failures, such as office-sharing company WeWork.
After posting then-record financial losses on the Vision Fund in 2022, Son said SoftBank would move into “defense” mode and be more conservative in its investments. In 2023, the Vision Fund posted a new record loss, with Son saying shortly after that SoftBank would now go “on the offensive,” because he was excited about investment opportunities in artificial intelligence.
The son has been largely out of the public eye ever since.
He returned to the spotlight on Friday to deliver a speech full of existential questions.
“Two years ago, I got old, and the rest of my life is limited, but I haven't done anything yet and cried hard,” Son said, indicating that he feels he has not achieved anything significant yet.
He added that he has now found SoftBank's mission, which is “to advance humanity.” He also said that he discovered his own purpose in life.
“For what purpose was SoftBank founded? For what purpose was Masa Son born? It may sound strange, but I believe I was born to realize ASI. I am very serious about this matter,” Son said.
