Altman says AI doesn't cause layoffs, companies using it hire more

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently pushed back against the common idea that companies lay off workers after adopting AI. He said the companies using AI the most are actually the ones hiring the most. Those blaming AI for layoffs, he added, are the ones using AI the least. Altman thinks AI has become an easy excuse for companies to explain job cuts.

Altman also said he's still not sure how AI will ultimately affect jobs, but he feels more optimistic after seeing companies use OpenAI's coding tools. He admitted he underestimated how uneven AI's abilities are—great at some tasks but nearly useless for long, complex supervision.

A Pew Research poll from March found that 50% of Americans are more worried than excited about the growing use of AI in daily life, while only 10% feel more excited than worried. Altman regrets that some of OpenAI's past press releases may have fueled public anxiety about job loss, especially a December release about GPT-5.2 that said the model outperformed professionals in 44 occupations. He wishes they had said it performed better on small tasks in those 44 jobs instead.