Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has said the next breakthrough in artificial intelligence will come when AI systems develop intelligence that goes beyond human capabilities. According to him, this shift will happen when AI gains what he described as unlimited and perfect memory.
Speaking in an interview on the Big Technology Podcast, Altman said recent progress in artificial intelligence has mainly focused on improving reasoning skills in large language models. However, he explained that the most exciting development for him is AI’s ability to remember every detail of a person’s life. He revealed that OpenAI is actively working toward this goal and is targeting 2026 to achieve it.
Altman said that even the best personal assistants today cannot remember everything a person says or does. He explained that current systems cannot read every document a user has written, observe daily activities in real time, or recall every small detail of someone’s life. He added that no human has a perfect memory, but AI systems will eventually be able to do this.
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He described AI memory as still being in an early stage but said it represents the next frontier of intelligence. His comments come just weeks after Google launched its latest AI model, Gemini 3, which the company described as a new era of intelligence after it achieved record results in several industry benchmark tests.
The release of Gemini 3 reportedly triggered strong internal discussions at OpenAI about rising competition. However, Altman downplayed the immediate threat from Google’s model. He said it is normal for OpenAI to respond quickly when new competition appears and described this as a healthy part of the industry. He added that similar situations had happened before, including earlier this year with DeepMind.
Altman said Gemini 3 has not had the level of impact OpenAI initially feared, at least so far. However, he acknowledged that the launch exposed some weaknesses in OpenAI’s products and overall strategy, which the company is now working to fix quickly.
He also shared OpenAI’s broader plan for staying ahead in the AI race. According to Altman, the strategy is to build the strongest AI models, develop high-quality products around them, and ensure the infrastructure is ready to deliver these systems at a global scale.
Currently, ChatGPT has around 800 million users and holds about 71 percent of the global AI app market. This share has declined from 87 percent last year. During the same period, Google has increased its share of the AI app market from about 5 percent to more than 15 percent, showing how competition in the AI space is rapidly intensifying.
