If you’re in desperate need of an intern, there’s good news: There may soon be an abundance of them. But they might not be able to fetch you a coffee.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted this week that AI agents—AI-powered systems that can complete job-related tasks with other software tools—can now effectively do the same work as entry-level employees.
“Today [AI] is like an intern that can work for a couple of hours but at some point it’ll be like an experienced software engineer that can work for a couple of days,” Altman said on a panel with Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy.
In the coming months, AI agents will only get exponentially better, Altman said—to the point where their skills are just as good as those of an experienced software engineer. They’re anticipated to operate continuously for days on end, without pause.
“I would bet next year that in some limited cases, at least in some small ways, we start to see agents that can help us discover new knowledge, or can figure out solutions to business problems that are very non-trivial,” the 40-year-old AI CEO added. Fortune reached out to Altman for comment.
