In the past few months, Sam Altman, the father of ChatGPT, has become the hottest face in the world of AI. Many industry leaders, AI researchers see ChatGPT as a fundamental technological shift, as significant as the creation of the web browser or the iPhone. But few can agree on the future of this technology.

Some believe it will deliver a utopia(乌托邦) where everyone has all the time and money ever needed. Others believe it could destroy humanity. Still others spend much of their time arguing that the technology is never as powerful as everyone says it is, insisting that neither heaven nor hell is as close as it might seem.

Mr. Altman, a slim, boyish-looking, 37-year-old businessman and investor from the suburbs of St. Louis, sits calmly in the middle of it all. As chief executive of Open AI, he somehow embraces each of these seemingly distinct views, hoping to balance the numerous possibilities as he moves this strange, powerful, unperfect technology into the future.

He believes that artificial intelligence will happen one way or another, that it will do wonderful things that even he can't yet imagine and that we can find ways of reducing the harm it may cause. It is an attitude that mirrors Mr. Altman's own path.

He is not necessarily motivated by money. Like many personal fortunes in Silicon Valley that are tied up in a wide variety of public and private companies, Mr. Altman's wealth is not well recorded. But he said the only money he stands to make from the company is a yearly salary-"whatever the minimum for health insurance is, "he said.

Georgeann Kepchar, who taught Advanced Placement computer science course, saw Mr.Altman as one of her most talented computer science students and one with a rare knack for pushing people in new directions." He had creativity and vision, combined with the ambition and force of personality to convince others to work with him on putting his ideas into action, "she said.