Sam Altman on how AI token usage is growing at an exponential rate.
"6 and a half years ago, the world token leader was an OpenAI employee using about 100,000 tokens a month. And this seemed ludicrous at the time. The worldwide average per capita was, like, zero.
Now, the worldwide average of tokens per month, is like 100,000, and the token leader at OpenAI uses something in the hundreds of billions.
If that happens again, which I think it probably will, then in another six and a half years, the average person uses, let's say, 500 billion tokens a month, and the token leader uses a quadrillion or quadrillions of tokens a month.
And I think that will just become the expectation."
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He was at YC Startup School 2026, in conversation @garrytan
From "Y Combinator" YouTube channel, (full video link in comment)