OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says AI can now compete with people who have PhD

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has issued stark warnings about the rapid advancement of AI. He previously said that AI can perform tasks on par with, or even exceeding, the capabilities of entry-level employees but has now added that it can compete with those holding PhDs. This comes at a time when people are facing job cuts in the tech industry, prompting experts to weigh in on which jobs will endure and how new graduates can secure them.Altman's latest comments, made on the "Uncapped" podcast hosted by his brother Jack Altman last week, amplify his earlier statements about AI's growing prowess."In some sense AIs are like a top competitive programmer in the world now or AIs can get a top score on the world’s hardest math competitions or AIs can do problems that I’d expect an expert PhD in my field to do," the OpenAI CEO said.

AI-led job cuts in tech industry

Altman's comments came amidst a backdrop of growing concerns from other tech leaders. Companies like Amazon have indicated plans to reduce corporate roles due to AI integration. Recently, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told the company employees to skill themselves in AI to be ahead of the curve.

Notably, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has cautioned that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar positions. Meanwhile, Google and Microsoft CEOs have already said that a certain percentage of code written at the companies are now AI-generated. However, despite these challenges, experts suggest the job market is shifting. The tech executives have maintained that while AI will eat away some jobs, new kinds of work will be created that will push people to acquire special skills.