The man building what he believes will be the most transformative technology in human history just admitted it hasn’t transformed much yet. At least not on the employment front.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told attendees at a Commonwealth Bank of Australia AI conference in Sydney on May 26 that artificial intelligence is unlikely to trigger a “jobs apocalypse,” noting that fewer entry-level white-collar positions have disappeared than he originally anticipated. He described himself as “delighted to be wrong” about the social fallout he once feared.
The guy building the robot says the robot won’t take your job
He didn’t say AI won’t change jobs. He said the wholesale destruction of white-collar employment that many predicted, himself included, simply hasn’t materialized. The entry-level positions that seemed most vulnerable to automation have proven stickier than expected.
Altman pointed to the irreplaceable nature of personal interactions in the workplace as one reason. He noted that he personally chooses to handle certain communications himself rather than delegating them to AI, emphasizing what he called the “human part” of employment.
