OpenAI CTO: ‘Some Creative Jobs Will Go Away’

The chief technology officer of OpenAI thinks that the advent of artificial intelligence will mean “some creative jobs maybe will go” but adds that “maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Murati was speaking to Dartmouth’s School of Engineering and unsurprisingly her comments sparked a reaction with some online commentators accusing OpenAI of trying to kill jobs.

Murati was describing AI products as a “tool” that people can “collaborate” with. Stating that she thinks it will expand human creativity.

“Right now, if you think about how humans consider creativity we see it as a very special thing that’s only accessible to very few talented people out there,” Murati tells Dartmouth University Trustee Jeffrey Blackburn. “These tools actually lower the barrier for anyone to think of themselves as creative.”

However, later in the video, Murati says that “the truth is that we don’t really understand the impact that AI is going to have on jobs yet.”

“I’m not an economist but I certainly anticipate that a lot of jobs will change, some jobs will be lost, some jobs will be gained. We don’t know specifically what it’s going to look like.”

Giovanni Colantonio described the quotes as a “despicable soundbite.”

“Murati keeps stressing that generative AI will make people ‘more creative.’ But how? You literally aren’t creating. A machine creates the thing for you. It kneecaps creativity, not fosters it,” Colantonio writes on X (formerly Twitter).

Does AI Mean Creative Jobs Will Be Lost?

Earlier this month, the CEO of Klarna, a “buy now, pay later” finance company, boasted that his business will save $10 million this year at the expense of photographers and the photo industry because of generative AI.

However, the effect of AI on creative industries such as photography is not clear. Forbes says the evidence seems to point against AI usurping creative industries citing a talent report published this year that declares there is “no easing up in the race for creative talent in 2024.”

The report by Rober Half estimates that at least 200,000 creative jobs were added to corporate payrolls in 2023.

However, there is widespread unease across creative industries that generative AI — which was largely built on the work of creatives without their permission — could supplant them in the future as the tools become more and more powerful.

Image credits: Dartmouth Engineering.