In a recent exclusive interview with The Rundown AI’s Rowan Cheung, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke broadly about the impact of AI on the job market, scientific breakthroughs, achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence), AI work slop, and what work could look like in an AGI-powered future.
Sam Altman revealed that he and a group of friends have a betting pool on when the first billion-dollar company run entirely by AI agents will emerge, as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent and reaches greater heights. However, the executive noted that the technology has not yet reached the level where it can autonomously operate a multibillion-dollar company.
Altman further revealed that the bet was initially centered on when the first one-person billion-dollar company would get started. However, the executive indicated that it would probably take years before the first billion-dollar company run entirely by AI agents emerges.
In the 30-minute-long interview, the OpenAI CEO admitted that AGI is a fuzzy concept, and like most people, he has multiple definitions for the term beyond a powerful AI system that surpasses human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of fields.
But perhaps more interestingly, Altman indicated that he was less concerned about the controversy around the coveted benchmark. Instead, he was stoked that the technology had finally unlocked a new feat where it could help with novel discovery, allowing it to expand the total human knowledge base.
I don’t want to overstate it or understate it either, but this is like the thing. And the fact that we are at the very beginning of that and that we are optimistic will be able to push hard on it in the coming months and years, like that is a big deal.
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman
The executive is also hopeful that AI will lead to significant scientific breakthroughs, including curing diseases and even novel physics. Altman predicts that humanity will get used to AI making scientific breakthroughs by having 2-week freakouts, then letting the feat whoosh by as the technology advances. “It’s only weird once,” added Sam Altman.
AI is creating work slop
Over the past few years, organizations have been hopping onto the AI bandwagon and integrating the ever-evolving technology into their workflows with the aim of bolstering productivity among employees.
However, it has consequently led to a new phenomenon known as AI work slop, which refers to AI-generated work that is presented as good work but in reality lacks substance. As such, it creates more work for employees.
In the survey, which assessed over 1,000 workers, 41% indicated that they had encountered AI work slop from their co-workers in the past month. Perhaps more concerning, the cleanup time averaged to 1 hour 56 minutes per incident, translating to $186/employee/month. This honestly feels more counter-productive than an aid that boosts productivity and creates more time for demanding tasks.
Sam Altman says AI is also changing how society sees work. Using the farmer analogy, the executive indicates that farmers have a hard time grasping modern-age jobs with the emergence of the internet and the technology around it.
What happens after AGI is achieved? The executive says that society will still find plenty of meaning in their lives. But at the same time, what we think of a work will change as the technology advances. At this juncture, it would look less like work than what we do now.
Altman admitted that he had some short-term worries about the AI revolution, but he is betting on human drive to find meaningful things to do. This news comes in the wake of tech leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei claiming that AI is on the verge of slashing up to 50% of white collar entry-level jobs, leaving Gen Z out of work. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates seemingly echoed similar sentiments, suggesting AI will replace humans for most things.
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