ChatGPT: It’s normal for jobs to disappear, says CEO – 05/18/2023 – Tech

Sam Altman, 38, CEO of OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, said, this Thursday (18), that many existing professions today will disappear, which would be “normal in any technological revolution”. He believes that society will have to adapt to the new scenario, but that it is still not possible to predict which jobs will disappear and which will emerge.

On a trip to Brazil this week, the entrepreneur participated in a discussion on the future of AI (artificial intelligence) at the Museum of Tomorrow, in Rio de Janeiro.

According to Altman, it is not possible to predict how technology will affect society in five years, but AI will be able to increase productivity, allowing human beings to be more creative and have more free time to perform other tasks.

“AI is never going to beat humans. As for difficult tasks, we might be like, ‘Okay, what can this robot do for us?’ The difficult tasks will still be for human beings.”

Felipe Petroski Such, a Brazilian programmer who makes up the OpenAI team, says he doesn’t see these tools replacing work — in particular, that of developers. For him, technology will enable these professionals to work on individual projects.

“Years from now we’re going to laugh at the fact that we thought we couldn’t work,” he says. “You’re going to work because you like it, not because you have to. You’re going to do what your heart wants.”

Altman said that it is normal for jobs to disappear in any technological revolution, but that it is not possible to predict which will disappear and which will emerge. However, he believes that people will have greater productivity.

The executive came to Brazil shortly after having testified in the US Congress. “We will definitely return, we want Brazil to embrace this future and take this idea forward.”

Asked by Sheet on how he would deal with the challenge of unequal technology access in the country, he said the first thing to do is keep trying to push AI prices down to make access more equal.

Altman also stated that most people in the world cannot afford this technology, neither to consume it nor to create it. OpenAI’s role in this scenario would be to make AI cheaper, like what happened with smartphones and the internet. He says he aims to “get out of the San Francisco bubble” and make technology more accessible.

When talking about regulation, he asked those in the audience that those who agreed with stricter rules for the use of AI to raise their hands. Most of the 350 people present in the auditorium did so.

According to him, OpenAI also agrees with the regulation. However, the executive said he does not believe it is possible to build an international regulatory structure. Altman advocates that countries create their own rules, considering the local context.

Nina da Hora, computer scientist and black activist, also participated in the meeting, questioned Altman about the presence of black people and people from outside the US on the OpenAI team.

In response, he said that one of Silicon Valley’s biggest mistakes was not seeing the differences, and that he was excited to get input from people all over the world. The CEO stated that there were some black people working in the company, but he could not say their names.

On technology biases, Altman said he believes systems are less biased than humans, and that they can be taught not to be.

Denis Mizne, CEO of the Lemann Foundation, which promoted the event, and the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, also participated in the event.

This Thursday, OpenAI announced the release of a ChatGPT app for iPhone and other Apple devices. The program accepts voice commands and is available on the App Store for users in the United States since this Thursday (18). “We will expand to other countries in the coming weeks.”