Sam Altman is challenging the idea that AI adoption is translating neatly into job cuts.
He made the argument during a Monday interview on CNBC before celebrating the official groundbreaking for a massive, 1 gigawatt data center 50 miles southwest of Detroit.
“The companies that I know that have adopted AI the most are also the ones hiring the most,” he said. “And the companies, as a general rule, that are talking about doing layoffs because of AI are the ones adopting AI the least.”
He added that AI can be a “convenient way” for companies to explain layoffs.
Altman said he remains unsure how AI will ultimately affect employment — but he said his view has become more optimistic after watching companies adopt OpenAI’s coding tools, including Codex.
“I think I underestimated how jagged these models are going to be,” he said. “They do some things incredibly well, but they don’t do kind of the long-term, complex task supervision well at all.”
AI anxiety
The comments come as workers are increasingly uneasy about what generative AI will mean for white-collar jobs. Some of the tech industry’s own leaders — including Microsoft AI’s CEO, Mustafa Suleyman, and Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei — have warned that AI could replace large numbers of workers.
Several tech companies have also cited AI while announcing job cuts, including Block, Cisco, Coinbase, Snap, and Salesforce.
That anxiety is showing up in public opinion. A March Pew Research Center poll found that 50% of Americans were more concerned than excited about AI’s increased use in daily life, compared with 10% who were more excited than concerned. Meanwhile, data center projects have sparked protests in communities across the country.
Altman added that he regrets some of OpenAI’s past press releases that might have contributed to public anxiety around job loss. He pointed to a December press release for GPT-5.2, in which the company said the model “outperforms professionals across 44 occupations.”
He said he wished the company had been more precise.
“What I wish we had said then is that it outperforms professionals at small tasks in 44 occupations, which is, I think, a more accurate thing,” he said. “I think people are right to be anxious. And I understand it. This is not even a technological shift that happens every generation. This is one of the big ones.”
‘The Barn’
The interview took place on the company’s Saline Township campus in front of heavy construction equipment. When it’s finished, the project is expected to deliver about five times the power of the average current data center project.
OpenAI has framed the project as an economic boost for the area, saying in a press release that it would create 2,500 union construction jobs and another 450 permanent on-site jobs.
The project has also become a flashpoint locally. Last week, Saline Township Treasurer Jennifer Zink stepped down from her position, citing violent threats she said she had received since the data center project was approved.
“Every time I come to one of these sites, I’m struck again,” he said. “The numbers say one gigawatt this, this many jobs, or tens of billions of dollars in capital. It doesn’t really get across the feeling of watching something like this materialize.”
OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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