Altman Shrugs: If AI Erases Jobs, Maybe They Weren’t “Real Work” to Begin With

SAN FRANCISCO — Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, offered an unexpectedly philosophical answer to one of the tech sector’s most urgent questions on Wednesday: if artificial intelligence decimates swaths of employment, did those jobs ever count as “real work”? Speaking with Rowan Cheung at OpenAI’s DevDay conference, Altman rehearsed a now-familiar scenario — that AI could threaten a billion knowledge-worker roles before new categories of work emerge — and leaned on a farmer-from-the-past analogy to make his point. “The thing about that farmer,” Altman said, “is not only that they wouldn’t believe you, but they very likely would look at what you do and I do and say, ‘that’s not real work.’” Altman contrasted farming, which he described as clearly essential — “you’re making them food, you’re keeping them alive. This is real work” — with many modern white‑collar jobs that a hypothetical farmer might dismiss as “playing a game to fill your time.” His implicit claim: some of today’s occupations will feel even less substantive when viewed from the vantage of a future transformed by AI. “If you’re, like, farming, you’re doing something people really need,” Altman said. “This is real work. … It’s very possible that if we could see those jobs of the future, maybe our jobs were not as real as a farmer’s job, but it’s a lot more real than this game you’re playing to entertain yourself.” The line of argument is intended to reassure — Altman told the audience he’s “so willing to bet on human drives being what they are,” and that people will “find plenty of things to do.” But the framing also landed as tone-deaf to many workers and labor advocates who see real economic, social and psychological stakes in the possible displacement of millions of jobs. Altman’s remarks echo a broader debate in tech and policy circles: the internet ultimately produced whole new industries and roles, but that transition took decades and left disruption in its wake. With AI, the timeline could be faster and the displacement more concentrated in knowledge and creative sectors that have supported middle-class livelihoods in recent decades. Critics say the farmer analogy risks minimizing immediate harms. “Calling people’s livelihoods ‘not real work’ is a poor consolation when rents are due and families depend on paychecks,” said one labor expert who asked not to be named. Policymakers are already scrambling to weigh options — from retraining programs and stronger safety nets to proposals such as universal basic income — to blunt an abrupt wave of job loss. Altman’s remarks also underscore a recurrent tension for Big Tech leaders trying to shepherd transformative tools while avoiding responsibility for their social consequences. As CEO of a company valued in the hundreds of billions whose products are explicitly designed to automate cognitive tasks, Altman’s insistence that people will simply “find plenty of things to do” will do little to quiet calls for concrete planning and protections. OpenAI has previously signaled awareness of societal risks: the company funds safety research and engages with regulators. But the DevDay comments — delivered without an accompanying road map for transition assistance or policy proposals — left many listeners wanting more than philosophical reassurance. Whether Altman’s prediction proves prescient or cavalier, the discussion he reignited is unavoidable. If AI reshapes large swaths of the economy, the choices society makes now — about education, wages, regulation and redistribution — will determine whether the change is an era of broad renewal or a period of concentrated dislocation. For now, the question Altman posed to a hypothetical time‑travelling farmer continues to hang over the debate: which forms of labor will future generations call “real work,” and who gets to decide?