CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI says AI will be ‘the greatest force for economic empowerment’ we’ve ever seen

• The popularity of AI chatbots like ChatGPT has people concerned that AI may steal their jobs.
• One person who’s not worried? Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT.
• Altman says he thinks AI will be the “greatest force for economic empowerment” we’ve ever seen.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made some notable strides since its viral launch in November, doing everything from penning songs to passing an MBA exam at an Ivy League college.

Its range of capabilities has some people worried that the AI may take their jobs. But Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, doesn’t share that concern.

“I think AI is going to be the greatest force for economic empowerment and a lot of people getting rich we have ever seen,” Altman said in a tweet on Monday.

AI poses a greater threat to some jobs than others, experts previously told Insider. These include jobs in fields like tech, media, and law. But the AI boom is also ushering in a new fleet of workers needed to make it happen.

And some workers are using the new technology to their advantage to make their work lives a little easier. Lawyers, realtors, and teachers told Insider they used ChatGPT to lighten their workloads. ChatGPT has also shown impressive potential in helping workers conquer tasks like writing cover letters when applying for jobs or asking for a raise.

In response to his tweet, a Twitter user asked Altman, “Do you have any real idea of the likely net implication of your own work? I’d guess that you can’t because it may be too profound. Is it likely that even you have no idea where AI will take us?”

Altman replied: “We have some ideas, but it’s a complex system and will coevolve with society. Anyone who says they really understand what the AI-future is going to look like in detail is delusional at best. A tight feedback loop and deep engagement with society seems like the best path forward.”

In an interview last month with StrictlyVC’s Connie Loizos, Altman was similarly asked for his predictions on the future of AI.

“I think the best case is so unbelievably good that it’s hard for me to even imagine,” he said at the time. “The bad case — and I think this is important to say — is, like, lights out for all of us.”

He’s also weighed in on one misuse of the tool: plagiarism, specifically students using ChatGPT on school assignments.

“We adapted to calculators and changed what we tested for in math class, I imagine,” Altman said in the same interview. “This is a more extreme version of that, no doubt, but also the benefits of it are more extreme, as well.”

OpenAI executives have said they’re shocked by ChatGPT’s popularity, noting that the product almost wasn’t released for public use in its current form.

In a recent interview on the New York Times tech podcast “Hard Fork,” Altman said, “People really love it, which makes us very happy. But no one would say this was like a great, well-integrated product yet.”