Quote of the day by ARC Prize co-founder François Chollet: "OpenAI basically set back progress to AGI by five to 10 years"

François Chollet, co-founder of the ARC Prize, stated on the Dwarkesh Podcast that OpenAI has set back progress toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) by five to 10 years. He argues that large language models (LLMs), which dominate current AI research funding, are a dead end for achieving true AGI, despite their usefulness in business applications. According to Chollet, the heavy focus on LLMs diverts resources from other architectures and approaches that could genuinely advance AGI, causing a significant delay. He also notes that while many tech executives warn about AGI risks, such claims often serve to hype existing technologies, and his ARC-AGI benchmark aims to measure real progress—none of the current LLMs have come close to succeeding.