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As artificial intelligence reaches new heights, the concept of learning is set to undergo a dramatic transformation. In his blog post The Gentle Singularity, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman outlines a future where intelligence becomes as cheap and available as electricity. He emphasises that the challenge is no longer about developing artificial intelligence—that breakthrough has already happened. What lies ahead is a period of rapid self-improvement, where AI agents will reshape how humans learn, discover, and create.
Altman’s insights reflect a fundamental shift in the purpose and process of learning. He argues that learners must now evolve from knowledge consumers to active collaborators with intelligent systems. The educational landscape, as he describes, will be driven by intent, adaptability, and machine-guided mastery.
Artificial intelligence Agents as Co-Learners in the New Learning Model
According to Altman, 2025 marks a turning point — the arrival of AI agents capable of genuine cognitive work. These systems can now write software, solve unfamiliar problems, and simulate human reasoning. Instead of replacing learners, Altman suggests they will become co-learners. People will increasingly guide, review, and amplify the output of AI agents.
He notes that this marks a fundamental reorientation of education. Learners will no longer be evaluated based on memory or structured problem-solving. Rather, their ability to collaborate with machines, interpret intelligent output, and define new challenges will take precedence. “Already we live with incredible digital intelligence,” Altman writes, “and after some initial shock, most of us are pretty used to it.”
The Fast-Tracked Scientific Discovery
Altman cautions that the rate at which AI is developing will cause the scientific breakthrough cycle to shorten. To him, it may not be long before a decade of research will be made in a year, or even in a month. This velocity may shake the established systems of education that exist on drawn-out curriculum changeover.
He clarifies that such pressure will compel learning institutions to redefine the way students are prepared. Students may not longer prepare themselves to enter in the established disciplines but rather prepare to pursue industry and issues that are yet to be developed. Altman writes, We can do 10 years of research in one year then the pace of progress is bound to change very drastically hence giving an argument on the fact that we need more dynamic approaches to education.
Hyper-Personalisation: the New Normal
In the world of Altman, learning will become highly personal and intuitive because it is powered by AI. He talks about intelligent systems as a global brain- and globally accessible, hyper-customised and adapts to personal learning style. Education will change to become de-standardised into a model in which every learner has their own individual route, personalised by goals and immediate reward.
The transition has the capacity to destroy traditional grading practices and credential standards. Instead of evaluating learners based on performance on standardised tests, learners may be evaluated on other measures: the extent to which they direct intelligent systems, and how they add value. Altman points out that this kind of AI-aided personalisation will be the new standard, rather than a luxury.
The Shifting meaning of Intelligence and Expertise
Altman is a visionary who dreams of a world where intelligence might be infrastructural- just as inexpensive as electricity. He postulates that the intelligence will be used in such a way that the deployment of it will be nearly free as datacenters and robot construct themselves. Knowledge is not scarce anymore in this reality but rather ambient.
Such a change transforms the meaning of expertise. Altman implies that although AI will be better in most of the fields, curiosity to learn and invent will still be purely human. Even under such a scenario that machines perform better than people, he continues, the act of learning will have both social and self significance. Mastery will be sought not to avoid something, but to contribute, to understand and to make sense of.
Not to mention that Altman also reflects on the societal implication. He does not deny the one-two punch that AI will punch, especially the loss of work. However, he is sure that society will soon become wealthier and will get new possibilities in the way policy, work and education are organized.
Life-Long Conversation with Intelligent Systems
Hiding in the vision of Altman is a world in which the process of learning is lifelong and ongoing dialogue with smart systems. He does not identify this as a threat but as a reworking of what learning is all about, that is, learning by credential to learning through collaboration.
Realizing that the border between machine and human intelligence is becoming ever fainter, the projection made by Altman demands revising the notion of learning. In the superintelligence era, he feels that this importance of knowledge will no longer be on the quantity of gathering knowledge, but rather how successfully we will be able to control, interrogate, and exploit it.
