Speaking at the Dogra Hall of IIT Delhi, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned students that blindly following traditional career advice, especially from parents, could be a mistake in a world being rapidly transformed by AI. While this warning went viral on social media and received mixed reactions, Altman also went on to say that we will also see some job roles vanish due to AI.
“I think listening to old people is the biggest mistake young people make. You will have to quickly develop your own intuitions and trust them. The traditional career advice is probably not going to work as well,” Altman said, drawing laughter from the packed Dogra Hall during the meet. He quickly clarified that parents remain the most important guides for life values, but not necessarily for career choices in fast-changing times. However, Altman warned students against relying on older generations to predict the future of work.
“For a predictor of what the world is going to be like going forward, I don’t think you should trust me for having good intuition of the rate of change,” he said, adding, “Young people always figure this out the best.”
Sam Altman talks about resilience at IIT Delhi gives example of how OpenAI was founded
Throughout the discussion, Altman repeatedly stressed the importance of what he called “agency,” the belief that individuals can make outcomes for themselves. “Agency is also a learnable skill,” he said. “The world kind of beats it out of you. So you have to resist and continue to believe that you can sort of figure anything out and make anything happen.”
He added that this quality has become more valuable than ever. “The returns on agency clearly have never been higher,” Altman said, pointing to how AI tools now allow individuals to do work that once required large teams. “A single person with drive and an idea and willpower can make incredible things happen.”
Altman spoke about the early days of OpenAI, describing how the company’s founding idea was widely seen as unrealistic. “If you are right on the idea, no matter how unpopular it is – in fact, it’s often better to be unpopular because you have no one else you are competing with and you stick with unwavering conviction over a long time, you can accomplish amazing things,” he said. “This was certainly the story of OpenAI.”
Altman urged students to take risks and persist through setbacks. “Most people, especially in India, are especially averse to risk,” he said, quoting himself. “My willingness to fail allows me to succeed.” In a rapid-fire round when asked to name one skill every IIT student should build this year, his answer was brief and emphatic – “Resilience.”
Altman provides clarity on human job losses due to AI
On the anxiety around jobs and AI replacing human workers, Altman said it was unrealistic to be either fully optimistic or fully fearful. “Anyone who says they’re only excited or only fearful about AI is not being very thoughtful,” he said. While acknowledging that “some jobs will totally go away,” he added that history suggests new roles will emerge faster than expected. Many of you will eventually do jobs that don’t exist today, even really as a concept,” he told students.
