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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes artificial intelligence will dramatically boost productivity, but he does not expect it to reduce the number of hours people spend working. Instead, he argues that human ambition and competition will continue driving people to take on more work, even in an AI-powered future.
Speaking on the Relentless podcast with host Ti Morse, Altman said technological progress has long been associated with the promise of more leisure time. While people today generally enjoy a higher quality of life and more free time than previous generations, he believes the long-predicted era of drastically shorter workweeks has never truly materialized. He shared his views while discussing AI’s impact on the workforce.
“Technology, for a long time, has been promising people that they’re going to work less and they’re going to have all this leisure,” Altman said. “But somehow we never get the promise of the four-hour workweek at mass scale in society. And I don’t expect AI to change that.”
Altman argued that productivity gains tend to raise expectations rather than reduce workloads. As people become more efficient, they also create new goals, desires, and challenges for themselves. He said humans are inherently competitive and often judge their success relative to others, making it unlikely that technological advances alone will lead to widespread reductions in working hours.
“We always want more. We think of new things to do, to create for each other, to want for ourselves. It’s like a relative game,” Altman said. He added that competition remains a fundamental driver of the economy and expects people to stay busy even in what he described as a “post-superintelligence world.”
The comments come as debates continue over the future of work. The four-day workweek gained momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic as companies explored ways to reduce burnout and improve employee well-being. However, many businesses have since reinstated five-day office schedules, while some organizations continue promoting demanding work cultures.
During the same interview, Altman also said he believes society is now entering the AI “singularity,” a period in which artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. Despite concerns surrounding increasingly capable AI systems, he described the transition as something that would ultimately be “incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world.”
