‘Delighted to Be Wrong’ – Sam Altman Changes Tune on AI Job Apocalypse Fears
Altman said entry-level white-collar jobs have proved more resilient to automation than he expected, and he no longer expects a jobs apocalypse.
- On Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman publicly admitted he was wrong about AI's impact on jobs during a May 26 virtual interview at Commonwealth Bank of Australia conference in Sydney, saying the anticipated AI 'jobs apocalypse' has not materialized.
- In past interviews, Altman suggested AI could replace 30 to 40% of work tasks 'in the not too distant future,' fueling widespread fears of mass white-collar disruption across finance, law and professional services sectors.
- Testing AI responses to his own Slack and email messages, Altman discovered that human interaction remains irreplaceable; he told Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn he was 'delighted to be wrong' about displacement speed.
- Rather than destroying jobs, automation will expand work and multiply productivity, Altman now argues, predicting the remaining 10% of automated tasks would 'expand to be 100% of what people do and kind of 10-times their productivity.'
- Despite 115,000 tech layoffs through May 2026, the Yale Budget Lab found no significant occupational changes in high-AI-exposure jobs since ChatGPT's late 2022 launch; U.S. employment has grown 145% since 1962, adding 200,000 data center jobs since 2022.
21 Articles
21 Articles
Sam Altman is “delighted to be wrong” about AI destroying jobs
Unlike some of his industry peers, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been surprisingly skeptical of the notion that AI is displacing workers. In an interview a few months ago, he argued that AI was a convenient scapegoat for some companies, echoing what some economists and experts have expressed about the narrative that AI is driving layoffs across corporate America. “I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there’s some AI washing where people a…
'I'm Delighted to Be Wrong': OpenAI's Sam Altman Admits AI Has Not Eliminated as Many White-Collar Jobs as He Feared
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly admitted he was wrong about AI's impact on jobs. The Silicon Valley executive made the announcement during a virtual appearance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's technology conference in Sydney on Tuesday. Altman told conference attendees that the anticipated AI 'jobs apocalypse' has not materialised in the way many industry leaders, including himself, once feared. He admitted that entry-level white-colla…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 50% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
