OpenAI's chief economist says AI won't replace human jobs

OpenAI's chief economist has offered an outlook suggesting that the rise of artificial intelligence will not eliminate human jobs.

Ronnie Chatterji, OpenAI's chief economist, made the case at the European Central Bank's annual forum in Sintra, Portugal, arguing that "just because a task is exposed to AI doesn't mean AI replaces that task," Bloomberg reported Monday (local time).

He drew on the experience of his father, who was an economist and adopted a personal computer in 1985. "My father's work was heavily affected by the PC," Chatterji said, adding that over time the technology boosted his father's efficiency and ultimately raised his productivity. Before the PC, running regression analyses for statistical work required using punch cards in a large room housing a mainframe computer — afterward, his father could run the same analyses on his own machine.

He went on to say that recent trends in software development had also defied expectations of AI-driven job losses. "The prediction that jobs would decline as AI capabilities increased has not materialized the way people expected," he said.

He then called for deeper thinking about the nature of work itself. "We need to think much more carefully about what jobs are and how they will evolve," he said, adding that such reflection would allow policymakers to move beyond unfounded optimism or pessimism and offer more grounded advice on labor market trends.

The economic impact of AI has emerged as a central concern for major governments and central banks, though ECB researchers said their own research had yet to find clear signs of actual job cuts.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said Europe stood to gain more by embracing AI quickly, while also stressing the need for caution over the technology's potential to displace workers.