The chairman of the board of the technology giant Microsoft, the main financial backer of OpenAI, said on Wednesday that there is no chance that a super-intelligent artificial intelligence will be created in the next 12 months, according to Reuters.

Brad Smith’s comments come a year after OpenAI, in which Microsoft reportedly owns a 49% stake, released its ChatGPT chatbot to the public, sparking a wave of hype and an “arms race” in artificial intelligence investment.

But the rapid progress of AI has also raised concerns that such systems could pose a threat to human existence.

And some information recently published by the technical press suggests that the scandalous dismissal of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI took place in the context of internal disputes over a dangerous discovery about artificial intelligence.

This speculation was also fueled by an interview Altman gave a few days before his dismissal, in which he told the Financial Times that:

“Now people say, ‘You’ve got a research lab, you’ve got this.’ [software] The API, you’ve got a partnership with Microsoft, you’ve got this ChatGPT thing, now there’s also a GPT store.’ But these are not exactly our products.”

“These are conduits to our one product, which is intelligence, a magical mind from the sky. I think that’s what the company is about,” he added.

Microsoft’s president says it will be some time before super-intelligent AI emerges

However, Smith dismissed those speculations in specialist media on Thursday.

“I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think there are clearly differences between the board and others, but it is not related to such a fundamental concern,” he said during a visit to Britain.

Altman was ousted from OpenAI earlier in November, but returned to lead the company days later amid a wave of protests from employees and the company’s founders.

Smith also said on Thursday that “there is absolutely no chance that you will see this so-called AGI (artificial general intelligence) where computers are more powerful than humans in the next 12 months.”

“It’s going to take years, if not decades, but I still think it’s time to focus on security,” added Brad Smith.

The concept of AGI refers to the level of development in the field of artificial intelligence, when a system is capable of performing any intellectual task that a human can perform.

Microsoft is believed to own 49% of OpenAI, the founders of the artificial intelligence research company another 49%, and 2% is owned by the non-profit foundation under which it was founded. But since OpenAI is not listed on the stock exchange, its share structure is not known for sure.