OpenAI CEO Sam Altman offered some striking advice to young people navigating a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. During an interaction at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi on Feb. 20, Altman said listening to old people and following traditional career advice is the biggest mistake made by young people.
“I think listening to old people is the biggest mistake young people make. For a predictor of what the world is going to be like going forward, I don't think you should trust me for having good intuition of the rate of change,” he said.
“Young people always figure this out the best, and the world you are all inheriting is going to be very different, and you'll have to quickly develop your own intuitions and trust them. But I think the traditional career advice is probably not going to work as well,” Altman added.
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Another aspect which Altman emphasised during the discussion was “agency.” “Agency is also a learnable skill. The world kind of beats it out of you. So, you have to resist and continue to believe that you can sort of figure anything out and make anything happen."
“The returns on agency clearly have never been higher. A single person with drive and an idea and willpower can make incredible things happen,” he added. The OpenAI CEO also noted that many people in India are risk-averse, whereas the current times demand a willingness to take risks.
“Most people, especially in India, are averse to risk. My willingness to fail allows me to succeed,” he said. Regarding the fears about AI displacing humans from jobs, he said that it is important to strike a balance instead of being overly positive or negative.
“Anyone who says they're only excited or only fearful about AI is not being very thoughtful," he said. He noted that while "some jobs will totally go away," new ones will emerge as well. “Many of you will eventually do jobs that don't exist today, even really as a concept," he told the students.
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