Yann LeCun, the AI Director at Meta, expresses his surprise at the significant impact of ChatGPT on people's lives.

LeCun compares the launch of ChatGPT to the "second coming of the Messiah" and notes its unexpected influence on the community, including OpenAI.

Despite not being a product of a major tech company, ChatGPT has impressed people, and they have started using it, according to LeCun. Statistics show that ChatGPT is one of the fastest-growing applications of all time. Upon its launch on November 30, 2022, the chat.openai.com website immediately attracted 153,000 visitors. By the end of the first week, the number of visits had increased to 15.5 million, reaching 58 million in the second week. According to data from Similar Web, OpenAI's product attracted over 100 million users within two months.

The emergence of ChatGPT has sparked a surge of interest in the field of artificial intelligence, drawing many tech giants into the race for AI development. LeCun mentions that, following a major internal debate in July, CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally requested the AI research team to release the large language model Llama 2 as open-source, allowing free usage. Additionally, Meta has announced several other AI products, such as virtual assistants based on the personas of famous individuals, to enhance competition with rivals.

In a social media post in October, Yann LeCun also expressed his belief that ChatGPT and AI will bring progress and positive developments rather than destruction, contrary to warnings from many experts. He suggests that spreading fear is a strategy used by large companies to influence regulatory decisions and stifle new research projects and ideas in the field.

LeCun believes that if this campaign is successful, there could be a real threat of AI technology being controlled by a few large organizations. In such a scenario, other entities interested in AI research might be viewed as less capable, daring, or even prone to self-destruction or negative consequences. However, he argues that this is not the reality.

At the VivaTech conference in Paris in June, Meta's Chief Scientist stated that the idea of AI dominating humans is unrealistic. Chatbots like ChatGPT still have significant limitations as they are trained only on text and cannot fully grasp the human experience. Therefore, LeCun believes that many experts are merely creating unwarranted fear around the perceived dangers of AI.

LeCun trusts that AI will develop better with the involvement of various forces. In the future, AI systems will become repositories of all human knowledge and culture. Hence, these platforms must always be in an "open" state for anyone to access freely, similar to the operation of Wikipedia.

"AI technology advances thanks to individuals within us," he says. "In the case of banned open-source AI, undoubtedly an alternative solution will be created."