Does this current period of intense public anxiety and technological capability feel like an unprecedented watershed moment?

It feels like both a watershed moment and the expected culmination of a decade of preparation. Inside OpenAI, we have anticipated and planned for this exponential trajectory for years, even when very few people outside believed artificial general intelligence was achievable. The difference today is that society has collectively recognized that this capability is arriving. While that realization triggers understandable fear and recalibration, our role is to help society absorb the transition constructively.