OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says: Those who lost their jobs to AI weren’t actually doing a job, becuase …

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has suggested that the types of jobs being eliminated or transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) may not be considered “real work” in the long run. During an interview with Rowan Cheung at OpenAI’s recent DevDay conference, Altman was asked about the possibility of AI destroying a billion knowledge-worker jobs before new ones are created. Altman used a thought experiment about a farmer from half a century ago. He said that a farmer “very likely would look at what you do and I do and say, ‘that’s not real work’.” Altman implied that this perspective makes him feel “a little less worried” about the job losses. The conversation was centred on the uncertainty of what new jobs AI will create in the coming decades, similar to how a farmer in the past could not have imagined the jobs created by the internet.