'I'm delighted to be wrong': Sam Altman says AI won't lead to a 'jobs apocalypse' - but admits he was 'pretty wrong' on the social and economic implications it is having

Date:
Tue, 26 May 2026 16:05:00 +0000

Description:
OpenAI CEO says it was "roughly right" about predicting the effect of its tech, but "pretty wrong" on the social and economic implications.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Sam Altman says he doesn't
think AI will lead to a "jobs apocalypse" OpenAI CEO says a human interaction will always be needed Altman says he uses AI to respond to Slack and email messages Sam Altman has hit out at claims the increasing global usage of AI technology worldwide will lead to a "jobs apocalypse", despite widespread reports this is exactly what is happening in many industries.

The OpenAI CEO also admitted that while he believed his company has been "roughly right" on the technological predictions it made when it launched ChatGPT in 2022, they were "pretty wrong" on the social and economic implications. Altman also noted that while he was initially concerned about the impact AI would have on global employment levels, he believed things were not as bad as many have made out. Latest Videos From You may like Sam Altman says some companies are AI washing by blaming unrelated layoffs on the technology but admits things may get worse soon OpenAI exec says AI
'doomers' are holding back incredible economic opportunities Sam Altman
issues stark warning as $1 billion plan is revealed "I'm delighted to be wrong" "I'm delighted to be wrong about this, I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened," Altman told CBA Chief Executive Matt Comyn in a virtual interview at a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) conference in Sydney (via Reuters ).

"I now think I understand more about why it hasn't, and I'm obviously
grateful but that is an area where my intuitions were just off," he added.

"People are like 'oh you could have saved the world a lot of fear mongering and a lot of doom and gloom' but at the time I was like 'I see this is a real risk we should probably talk about it' and it still may."

Altman's comments come days after Meta laid off around 8,000 workers
following multiple failed AI-linked projects , with many others forcibly re-assigned to new AI work. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign
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Banking giant Standard Chartered was also widely criticized recently after
its CEO described workers as 'lower value human capital' shortly after
cutting thousands of jobs in favour of AI tools. (Image credit: Shutterstock
/ Mehaniq) Altman also revealed a little about he uses AI tools for his personal work life, including having it respond to Slack and email messages.

However he noted he had reverted to answering some himself, as there is still a 'human part' of employment which needs to be present. What to read next White House National Economic Council Director says AI isnt causing job cuts Sam Altman admits OpenAI still needs to fix these 3 ChatGPT-5.4 weaknesses LinkedIn exec says AI isn't causing a big drop-off in hiring just yet

"I had it reply to messages, saying 'this is Sam's AI' and it was an amazing example to me of we really do care about people," he said.

"We really do care about our interactions with people and this thing, which
is a huge amount of my time, is not something that I can imagine myself outsourcing to an AI anytime soon."

Overall, Altman said these feelings made him realize human workers will still have a place in most roles going forward.

"It really, in both positive and negative ways, updated me to thinking that the jobs picture is likely to be very different than we thought," he said.

"I don't think we're going to have the kind of jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about." Follow TechRadar on
Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/im-delighted-to-be-wrong-sam-altman-says-ai-wont -lead-to-a-jobs-apocalypse-but-admits-he-was-pretty-wrong-on-the-social-and-ec onomic-implications-it-is-having


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