Sam Altman says AI could one day cure cancer if computing power keeps pace
Cancer specialists, however, remain cautious.
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OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has suggested that artificial intelligence could one day crack the code to curing cancer — but only if computing capacity grows at the scale he envisions.
In a recent blog post titled Abundant Intelligence, Altman said that with 10 gigawatts of AI computing power, breakthroughs in medicine, including advanced cancer treatment, may become possible. He argued that if AI “stays on the trajectory we think it will, then amazing things will be possible,” ranging from personalised cancer therapies to tailored learning tools for students.
Altman has set what he calls the “10-gigawatt challenge”, an ambitious plan to build factories capable of adding one gigawatt of AI capacity every week.
The initiative ties into OpenAI’s partnership with Nvidia, billed as the largest AI infrastructure project in history. Nvidia chief Jensen Huang said: “We’re literally going to connect intelligence to every application, to every use case, to every device. This is the first 10 gigawatts, I assure you of that.” The first data centres are scheduled to come online next year.
Cancer specialists, however, remain cautious. They warn that a universal cure is still a distant prospect, given the disease’s complexity across hundreds of distinct forms. Yet AI has already made headway in related areas — for example, Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold has transformed drug discovery by mapping protein structures with unprecedented accuracy.
Altman also framed his vision in broader terms, suggesting that AI should ultimately be treated as a human right, with infrastructure designed to deliver benefits not just in healthcare but across fields from education to life-saving technologies.
