OpenAI investor believes AI provides key to happiness: report

SoftBank Group (OTCPK:SFTBY) founder Masayoshi Son believes artificial intelligence possesses the power to one day increase the happiness of humankind.

The Tokyo-based SoftBank invested in the latest funding round for OpenAI, contributing $500M of the $6.6B raised, which propelled the Microsoft-backed (NASDAQ:MSFT) startup to a towering valuation of $157B.

“We can design AI personal agents who understand your emotions and whose greatest reward is your happiness,” Son said during an event on Thursday, reported by Bloomberg. “Artificial superintelligence is something that wants you to be happy.”

Son believes in a few short years, AI will be capable of running households and improving lives in a multitude of ways. As such, his bank has invested heavily in the software and hardware required to run the technology, such as stockpiling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) processors. Indeed, it is written into the investment bank’s philosophy.

“Computing performance is increasing dramatically, and we are getting ever closer to an age of super-intelligent machines that will surpass human ability,” according to SoftBank’s philosophy. “Our mission is to harness the raw, unlimited power of the Information Revolution and channel it in a direction that makes people happier.”

“The human brain consists of some 100 trillion synaptic connections, and that number won’t change — while generative AI is creating new synapses at a furious pace,” Son said, according to the report.

SoftBank is also the majority owner of Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARM), a British semiconductor company.