OpenAI Plans Jobs Platform, Certification Program For AI Roles

OpenAI plans to launch a new AI-powered jobs platform next year to help match employers with candidates who have artificial intelligence skills in a bid to accelerate the technology’s deployment across businesses and government agencies. 

The ChatGPT maker will also introduce a new certification program in the coming months that will teach workers how to better use AI on the job. OpenAI is working with multiple organizations on the program, including Walmart Inc., the largest private employer in the US. OpenAI said it plans to certify 10 million Americans by 2030.

The company unveiled the jobs initiatives Thursday in conjunction with a White House task force meeting on artificial intelligence and education, hosted by first lady Melania Trump. Tech industry leaders including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Alphabet Inc.’s Sundar Pichai attended the event. Altman is also expected to meet with senior White House officials later in the day, the company said. 

“We believe fundamentally that AI will unlock more opportunities for more people than any technology in history, but it will also be disruptive,” said Fidji Simo, chief executive officer of applications at OpenAI and the former head of Instacart. “While we can’t eliminate the disruption, we can certainly help more people become fluent in AI and connect them with companies that need their skills.”

For the jobs platform, OpenAI plans to use AI to help match local governments and companies of all sizes with potential candidates. The service could put the AI developer in closer competition with companies like LinkedIn, owned by OpenAI backer Microsoft. 

“I don’t envision it as just a simple job posting,” said Simo, who previously worked as an executive at Meta overseeing the main Facebook application. “I envision it much more as candidates being able to talk about what they can offer and demonstrate that with a certification, and then us being able to match them with companies that have similar needs using AI.”

OpenAI is working closely with Walmart to develop the certification program, details of which are being ironed out. Certifications will be available for free to Walmart’s roughly 1.6 million store and corporate employees in the US and vary by roles, but may come with a fee for other companies in the future.

“We think that the future of retail is going to be determined by a mixture of people and technology,” said John Furner, CEO of Walmart’s US business. Employees are already using AI for many tasks, such as planning shifts and ordering inventory, and additional tools are getting rolled out for shoppers and suppliers. The goal, he said, is to use technology to free up staff’s time on the “most value-added” activities, including interacting with customers.

As companies race to incorporate AI, there have been mounting concerns that the technology may replace entire categories of jobs. A recent study by Stanford University researchers found that over the last three years, employment has dropped 13% for people who are just starting out in fields determined to be the most exposed to AI — such as accountants, developers and administrative assistants.

“We don’t want to pretend that we know how it’s going to play out,” Simo said. “Instead, what we want to do is have solutions for every kind of worker to be able to adapt to this new world.”

Simo noted there was a time when people thought Excel spreadsheets would replace accountants. Instead, the software ended up assisting people in those roles, she said. Likewise, Furner highlighted online pickup and delivery roles that didn’t exist a decade ago and now make up a big chunk of Walmart’s current workforce.

“At the same time, we want to acknowledge that there are some categories of jobs that might be deeply disrupted,” Simo said. “For those, what we want to offer is all of the ways to really learn a new set of skills.”