Sam Altman urges young people to embrace AI as enthusiasm fades

The career advice

Speaking in an interview for Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, Altman said AI can do many tasks people currently handle better, more cheaply and faster—and in a very different way. Fortune reported his remarks.

He argued that the disruption creates opportunities. Young people willing to learn new tools, he said, may be able to advance faster or start a business. In Altman’s view, major periods of change are the best time to begin a career.

Then he turned to students who are slow to embrace new directions. Altman said he is repeatedly disappointed by MBA students wanting to work on things that were popular five years ago instead of taking on what is new.

The interviewer pointed out the tension: if AI is already fashionable, does his advice amount to following the trend? Her remark drew loud laughter from the audience.

From trend to routine

The question cuts through the career pitch. The excitement that followed ChatGPT’s release in November 2022 and continued through the next year now feels distant. Public sentiment toward AI has deteriorated quickly: artists and tastemakers have not embraced it, while companies have rushed to use AI tools to cut costs, automate tasks, monitor workers and justify layoffs.

Yet AI is no longer simply a novelty. Almost every programmer uses it at work, and job applicants are interviewed by AI models. Its spread has made the technology ordinary—and, for some, tiring.

The question behind the advice

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has become a signal of that fatigue: he said he treats AI-written text in the pitch decks he receives as a sign of laziness.

I think Altman’s advice is less about joining a popular movement than about positioning yourself for a changing labor market. But the interview leaves out what matters to anyone choosing a career: which new directions will create durable work, rather than simply help employers do more with fewer people. AI’s ubiquity may make it essential to learn; it does not make every AI opportunity a good one.