Public transcript

'You Should Not Trust Me!' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Warns IIT Delhi Students On AI, Career Risks Ahead

By: TOI Bharat
Length: 6 min
Language: English
Text from: the video's captions
Transcribed: 12 October 2026

Read the full transcript Open on YouTube

Notes in English.

Summary

In a talk at IIT Delhi, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tells students not to trust him or older generations to predict how fast the world will change, and warns that traditional career advice may no longer work. He discusses AI's impact on jobs, saying no one really knows what will happen, that some jobs will disappear while many will persist, and that new jobs will emerge faster and stranger than expected. He acknowledges the transition will be painful for many people but is less worried about the long term.

Key points

Altman says the biggest mistake young people make is listening to old people when preparing for AI.
He argues no one, including OpenAI, really knows how AI will affect jobs, and there will be many surprises.
He says anyone who is only excited or only fearful about AI is not being thoughtful; everyone sits somewhere on a continuum.
Some jobs will totally go away, but many will change less than expected because humans still want other humans involved, like doctors.
He says history shows we consistently underestimate how quickly new and different jobs appear after major technological shifts.
He expects the transition to be very painful for many people and hopes new socioeconomic models ease it.
He believes many students will eventually do jobs that don't exist today even as a concept.
He advises students to quickly develop their own intuitions and trust them.

Questions it answers

00:00Don't trust old predictions

Why does Sam Altman say students shouldn't trust him about how the world will change?

He says he doesn't have good intuition for the rate of change, and that young people always figure out the changing world best. He advises students to develop their own intuitions and trust them, noting traditional career advice probably won't work as well.

Altman explicitly warns students not to trust him on the rate of change.
Traditional career advice is likely to become less useful.
Young people must build and trust their own intuitions.

00:24Fear vs. excitement about AI

How should people feel about AI taking their jobs in the next five years?

Altman says anyone who is only excited or only fearful is not being thoughtful; people sit on a continuum between excitement and fear. Given the magnitude and speed of the change, everyone has to be somewhere on that spectrum.

There are not two camps, but a continuum of excitement and fear.
Being purely excited or purely fearful is not thoughtful.
The change is fast, with much promise and much obvious peril.

01:31Which jobs change and which don't

What does Altman predict will happen to jobs as AI advances?

He says no one really knows, including OpenAI, and there will be many surprises. Some jobs will totally go away, but many will change less than expected because people still want humans involved, like a human doctor even if AI gives better advice.

No one, including OpenAI, really knows how AI will affect jobs.
Some jobs will disappear entirely.
Many jobs will persist because people want human involvement.

02:20New jobs emerge faster than expected

What does history suggest about new jobs after major technological shifts?

Altman says every major technological shift led people to underestimate how quickly new jobs would appear and how different they would be. His own job would be hard to imagine before computers, and some of today's best jobs didn't exist as a category 20 years ago.

We consistently underestimate the speed and strangeness of new jobs.
Some of today's best jobs didn't exist 20 years ago.
Entrepreneurs will still start companies, growing faster and more disruptively.

03:26Long-term optimism about work

Is Altman worried that technology will leave people with nothing to do?

No; he says society never runs out of things to do and people keep finding new ways to be creative and useful. He imagines future jobs looking almost like a game-like existence to people today, and many students will do jobs that don't yet exist even as a concept.

Society never reaches the predicted state of doing nothing.
People find new ways to express creativity and be useful.
Many students will hold jobs that don't exist even as a concept today.

03:56A painful transition

Does Altman think the shift to an AI economy will be easy?

He expects the transition to be very painful for many people, and hopes society finds new socioeconomic models to ease it. However, he is less worried about the long-term future.

The transition will be very painful for many people.
He hopes new socioeconomic models reduce the pain.
He is less worried about the long term.

04:14The biggest mistake young people make

What does Altman call the biggest mistake young people make when preparing for AI?

Listening to old people. He says parents are the best source for advice on happiness and being a good person, but not for predicting how the world will change, and that traditional career advice probably won't work as well.

The biggest mistake is listening to old people about the future.
Parents' advice on happiness and character remains valuable.
Students must trust their own intuitions about a very different world.

Notes

On Trusting Older Generations

Altman says the biggest mistake young people make when preparing for AI is "listening to old people."
He distinguishes between parents' advice on living a happy life or being a good person, which he says is worth heeding, and their ability to predict how the world will change, which he says is not.
He tells students, "I don't think you should trust me for having good intuition of the rate of change."
Young people always figure things out the best, and the world they are inheriting will be very different, so they must quickly develop their own intuitions and trust them.
He believes traditional career advice is probably not going to work as well going forward.

On Fear and Excitement About AI

Altman says anyone who is only excited or only fearful about AI is "not being thoughtful."
He rejects the idea of two camps, describing instead a continuum between 90% excited and 10% fearful, or the reverse.
Given the magnitude, speed, promise and "obvious peril" of the change, everyone has to sit somewhere on that spectrum, not at either end.

On Jobs and the Future of Work

He caveats everything by saying no one really knows what will happen, including OpenAI, and there will be many surprises.
Some jobs will totally go away; many will change less than expected because people still want humans involved, such as wanting a human doctor even if AI gives better advice.
Entrepreneurs will still start companies, but they will grow faster, do more, and be more disruptive to existing jobs.
Every major technological shift in history has led us to underestimate how quickly new jobs appear and how different they are; his own job would be hard to imagine before computers.
Some of today's best jobs didn't exist as a category 20 years ago.

On Long-Term Optimism and a Painful Transition

He imagines that in 100 years people may look at jobs the way someone from 500 years ago would view his job: not real work, an almost game-like existence.
Society never runs out of things to do; people find new ways to be creative, useful to each other, and gain status.
Many students will do jobs that don't exist today even as a concept.
The transition will be very painful for many people, and he hopes society finds new socioeconomic models to make it less painful, but he is less worried about the long-term future.

Text from the video's own captions. Summary and notes written by AI from the transcript, so check anything important against the recording.