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OpenAI CEO Challenges Vision of Shorter Workweeks: Superintelligent AI Won’t Reduce Hours, Increasing Human Workloads
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shared an unexpected insight during a recent public interview—he believes artificial intelligence will not usher in the golden age of working only four days per week as many people anticipate. Historically, every technological breakthrough has been accompanied by the assumption that such progress would shorten working hours and free up more leisure time. Yet Altman emphasized that this idealized scenario has never materialized on a widespread scale over the decades, and AI is unlikely to be an exception.
Altman acknowledged that, when examining historical trends, modern individuals do indeed enjoy greater free time for leisure compared to workers from centuries past, and overall quality of life has reached levels unimaginable in earlier eras. Nevertheless, the widespread adoption of AI technology is set to significantly boost societal productivity. At the same time, people’s expectations of their own achievements will also rise rapidly, meaning there won’t be a general trend toward reducing workloads or taking it easier.
The relentless drive for relative superiority keeps everyone busier rather than more relaxed
In Altman’s view, human society’s overall demands will never stabilize at their current level. As productivity increases, people continuously invent new tasks and services to offer one another, generating entirely new requirements that didn’t exist before. Society functions like an unending competition where everyone is closely focused on maintaining a competitive edge over those around them. This underlying motivation keeps the economy moving forward and will not diminish even with the advent of AI.
He went so far as to make a counterintuitive prediction: once super intelligent systems are fully integrated into daily life, people’s actual workload will likely be greater than expected. They may complain about how much time is spent working, yet secretly enjoy the experience. Current realities appear to support this insight—many tech industry executives worldwide are currently imposing stricter policies requiring employees to work five days a week in offices, and some regions are even promoting prolonged working hours. The once-hoped-for four-day workweek seems increasingly distant for the general public.
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Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, shared an unexpected insight during a recent public interview—he believes artificial intelligence will not usher in the golden age of working only four days per week as many people anticipate. Historically, every technological breakthrough has been accompanied by the assumption that such progress would shorten working hours and free up more leisure time. Yet Altman emphasized that this idealized scenario has never materialized on a widespread scale over the decades, and AI is unlikely to be an exception.
Altman acknowledged that, when examining historical trends, modern individuals do indeed enjoy greater free time for leisure compared to workers from centuries past, and overall quality of life has reached levels unimaginable in earlier eras. Nevertheless, the widespread adoption of AI technology is set to significantly boost societal productivity. At the same time, people’s expectations of their own achievements will also rise rapidly, meaning there won’t be a general trend toward reducing workloads or taking it easier.
The relentless drive for relative superiority keeps everyone busier rather than more relaxed
In Altman’s view, human society’s overall demands will never stabilize at their current level. As productivity increases, people continuously invent new tasks and services to offer one another, generating entirely new requirements that didn’t exist before. Society functions like an unending competition where everyone is closely focused on maintaining a competitive edge over those around them. This underlying motivation keeps the economy moving forward and will not diminish even with the advent of AI.
He went so far as to make a counterintuitive prediction: once super intelligent systems are fully integrated into daily life, people’s actual workload will likely be greater than expected. They may complain about how much time is spent working, yet secretly enjoy the experience. Current realities appear to support this insight—many tech industry executives worldwide are currently imposing stricter policies requiring employees to work five days a week in offices, and some regions are even promoting prolonged working hours. The once-hoped-for four-day workweek seems increasingly distant for the general public.
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