‘Would that be enough to convince you’: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and father of quantum computing debate AI’s true test

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and British physicist David Deutsch have agreed on a striking new test for artificial intelligence (AI) – if an AI model could solve the mystery of quantum gravity — and explain its reasoning — it could be considered human-level smart. According to a Business Insider report, the exchange happened on Wednesday (September 24) in Berlin, where Altman visited Axel Springer’s headquarters to meet tech leaders and collect an award. During a fireside chat, publisher Mathias Döpfner asked Sam Altman about his favorite book — Deutsch’s The Beginning of Infinity — and then surprised him by patching the author in live from Oxford.

Deutsch, often called the father of quantum computing, has long argued that brute-force training alone cannot produce true minds. He said real intelligence means creating knowledge, not just repeating or remixing it.