SoftBank’s billionaire CEO, who believes AI will completely change the way humans live within 30 years, says he can’t stop using ChatGPT

• SoftBank’s billionaire CEO can’t stop using ChatGPT.
• Masayoshi Son said during a shareholder meeting that he used the chatbot every day, per Reuters.
• The Japanese business leader has long touted AI as the future of humanity. 

SoftBank’s billionaire CEO Masayoshi Son said he is “chatting with ChatGPT every day” as his company races to get ahead in the new era of AI.

Son, who also founded the Japanese conglomerate, said he was “a heavy user” of OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot.

He made the comments on Tuesday during a shareholder meeting for the company’s telecoms unit, per Reuters. He added that he spoke almost daily to OpenAI boss Sam Altman. 

The CEO had the chance to meet Altman earlier this month. The OpenAI boss visited Tokyo as part of his recent worldwide tour to meet political and business leaders amid growing calls for AI regulation to tackle the technology’s potential harms. 

Son, who made his fortune following a timely bet on Chinese tech giant Alibaba in 1999, has become one of the loudest proponents of AI in recent years. He said he believed AI would completely change the way humans lived “within 30 years,” during an interview with CNBC in 2019.

However, the company’s attempts to get ahead in the AI race through startup investing have fallen flat. Investments made through its Vision Funds, a pair of investment vehicles worth more than $100 billion, have struggled to turn a profit.  

In May, SoftBank’s investment unit reported an annual loss of $32 billion as deteriorating macro conditions over the past year, driven by rising interest rates, have put its more speculative technology bets under pressure. 

Son, who in recent months has stepped away from his notorious investor presentations full of eccentric slides, also said during Tuesday’s shareholder meeting that SoftBank would be in a position to win the AI race as “a huge revolution” comes, Bloomberg reported.

“SoftBank Group won’t be deterred by a few short-term losses,” Son said. “We will rule the world in the end.”

SoftBank did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment made outside of normal working hours.