OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has some bad news to share: AI will never lead to a shorter work week — despite having already ushered in the singularity, in his dubious telling.
During an appearance on the “Relentless” podcast, the billionaire reflected that “somehow we never get the promise of the four-hour work week at mass scale in society,” despite tech “promising people that they’re going to work less and they’re going to have all this leisure.”
“And I don’t expect AI to change that,” Altman added.
Instead of striving for a healthier work-life balance, one of the rare positive — albeit entirely hypothetical — outcomes of the business world’s current obsession with generative AI, the CEO said we’d ultimately be happier if we keep our heads down and keep grinding.
“I think we’re all going to be much busier than we thought we were supposed to be in a post-superintelligence world,” he said during the podcast. “We’re still going to complain about it, but secretly we’re going to be happy.”
Tech executives have long promised that work could soon be a thing of the past thanks to extremely capable AI models taking care of all the menial labor, allowing us to focus on doing what we love instead.
Altman has a far more sobering take on the matter, asserting that we’re all rats in a maze and that we secretly love it.
The CEO’s comments are a perfect example of how tech leaders are significantly shift their narrative. Instead of freeing up workers to pursue what they’re actually passionate about by letting AI do all the brunt work, they’re now saying, the tech will simply empower them to do more.
In practice, that means AI is forcing employees to work harder, not less, an “intensification” of roles that’s already leading to widespread burnout.
Then there’s the ever-present threat of being laid off as business leaders vow to replace jobs with AI, a reality that has devastating psychological impacts, according to psychiatrists. Those who remain employed are often shouldered with the responsibilities of their departed coworkers, compounding their woes.
It’s a sad predicament that even those at the forefront of AI don’t envision the situation getting any better as the tech improves. While lawmakers like Vermont senator Bernie Sanders continue to push for a four-day work week facilitated by AI, tech leaders have seemingly moved on from the idea.
Besides, to assume that the increasing workload brought on by the advent of AI will ultimately make us “happy” feels like a slap in the face coming from a man who’s played a major role in eviscerating the job market and making life more expensive.
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