AI May Replace 40% Of Human Jobs, Claims OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Artificial Intelligence could take over 40% of the tasks currently performed by humans, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Speaking to Axel Springer Global Reporters Network, Altman highlighted the rapid changes AI could bring to the global workforce, while pointing out that many tasks will evolve rather than disappear entirely.

“I can easily imagine a world where 30 to 40% of the tasks that happen in the economy today get done by AI in the not very distant future,” Altman said.

He said that while some jobs will disappear, many existing roles will change, and new ones will pop up. 

“Think about the jobs that we did 30 years ago that may not exist at all today, or new jobs that were difficult to imagine 30 years ago that are now commonplace,” Altman added.

On AI’s capability to surpass humans, Altman was optimistic. “In many ways, GPT-5 is already smarter than me, at least, I think a lot of other people too. GPT-5 is capable of doing incredible things that many people find very impressive,” he said.

Altman also acknowledged that the system is still unable to do many tasks that humans perform easily. He said this gap would exist for some time, as humans continue to apply their “insight, creativity, and ingenuity” alongside AI tools. Altman added that he expects the trajectory of AI’s capabilities to remain “extremely steep.”

Altman also predicted that AI could soon achieve breakthroughs beyond human reach. He said that in just three years since ChatGPT launched, the models have become much more “capable”, and he sees no sign of progress slowing. Within a few years, he believes AI could make scientific discoveries that humans cannot achieve on their own, marking the start of what could be considered “superintelligence.”

“By the end of this decade, by 2030, if we don't have extraordinarily capable models that do things that we ourselves cannot do, I'd be very surprised,” Altman said.

Pointing out the human qualities that AI cannot replace, he said, “Something that is really unique is how much people care about other people and what they do, how much people want to interact with other people. I think these qualities will be increasingly important in the world of AI.”

OpenAI also plans to develop a “family of devices” to redefine computing.