Sam Altman sat down with Matthew Berman for a 45-minute interview published on Wednesday, ranging across AI-driven math and science discoveries, personal AI assistants, compute and OpenAI's new hardware. Asked whether today's models are conscious, Altman said he does not believe they are — 'or if they are, it's a very strange form of it' — before adding the line that anchors the conversation: 'I want to be clear, no one really knows.'

On hardware, Altman argued that phones and computers were designed for people, so AI agents are stuck interpreting visual interfaces instead of reaching information directly. He sees AI becoming an ambient assistant that helps beyond a chat window, which may require a different physical form factor — the bet behind OpenAI's device work.

The interview also covers recursive self-improvement, why AI has not killed coding jobs, ChatGPT being too agreeable, and OpenAI's bet on chips and cheaper compute. Altman closed on ambition with a caveat: 'AI will cure cancer' is not enough — the point, in his telling, is aiming at a new renaissance.