Sam Altman says AI won't shorten the workweek because humans secretly enjoy being busy

Sam Altman says AI won't shorten the workweek because humans secretly enjoy being busy

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. A hot potato: Much like a cure for cancer, the shorter workweeks we were told AI would enable remain elusive. OpenAI boss Sam Altman has now explained why people aren't working four-hour days: it seems that we just love to work and compete with others, apparently. One of the many benefits promised early in the generative AI boom was that it would boost productivity to the point where most of us could work fewer hours per week (and still be paid the same, presumably). That hasn't happened, of course - unless you count all the people who've been laid off because of AI and now work no hours each week. Altman gave his take on this topic during an interview with Ti Morse on the Relentless podcast. "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," he added. "And I don't expect AI to change that." Altman says that humanity today has more leisure time and a better quality of life than any other period in history, thanks to technology, but that's not enough for a lot of people. "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. People are very focused on how they're doing relative to other people," the CEO said. Altman believes that human's expectations rise alongside their capabilities. When technology makes existing work easier, we invent new products, ambitions, experiences, and problems to pursue. Beyond money and status, he thinks people have a genuine desire to create, contribute and feel useful. That motivation will continue even when AI can perform much of today's work. "I think we're all going to be much busier than we thought we were supposed to be in a post-superintelligence world. We're still going to complain about it, but secretly we're going to be happy," Altman concluded. Altman does seem to base his assumption on everyone having incredibly satisfying careers that offer a wealth of creative outlets. It's hard to imagine people working soul-crushing, monotonous, depressing jobs not wanting to work fewer hours for the same pay each week. Others have also questioned why, if AI is making us all super productive, we're not working shorter workweeks. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience last year, Senator Bernie Sanders said that the extra time that workers save through the use of AI tools should be given back to them - not filled with extra tasks. The UK, France, Japan, and Germany are among the countries where companies and government organizations have been experimenting with four-day weeks without reducing workers' pay. An aggregated global study found that company revenue was up 8% during these four-day weeks, while among workers, fatigue was down 10% and stress was down around 35%. The study also found that overall productivity stayed the same or even increased - by 40%, in the case of Microsoft Japan. Altman recently claimed that another AI prediction hasn't come to pass: the jobs apocalypse. But that probably depends on your definition of an apocalypse.

Feeling stressed and overworked? Don't worry - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman thinks that we just love to work, and that's why AI won't result in a four-day working week

Good news everyone - it seems that the reason AI hasn't yet resulted in less work and more leisure time, as promised by multiple "evangelists" and AI "experts" is that we just love working too darn much. That's according to OpenAI CEO and America's next top (AI) model whisperer Sam Altman, who has declared that people are just really big fans of grinding away and competing with others. Speaking on the Relentless podcast, Altman told host Ti Morse that in fact, he doesn't expect a change in society or working practices for quite some time, despite widespread promises that AI would boost our productivity and efficiency across the board. AI "won't change" work - yet "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," he added. "And I don't expect AI to change that." It's a remarkably candid admission from the leader of a company which is explicitly setting out to solve some of the world's biggest problems - whether personal or work-related - with AI. In fact, Altman pointed out that we do have more free time and luxuries today than at any point in history - but this has led to increased expectations from many people. "We always want more," Altman added, "we think of new things to do, to create for each other, to want for ourselves. It's like a relative game. People are very focused on how they're doing relative to other people." "I think we're all going to be much busier than we thought we were supposed to be in a post-superintelligence world. We're still going to complain about it, but secretly we're going to be happy," Altman concluded. I'm not so sure about that - but I'm happy to be proved wrong. Play it again, Sam I'm not so sure about that - but I'm happy to be proved wrong. That's because Altman has been pretty vocal on the future of AI in the workplace for some time, with his viewpoints often changing depending on the situation. For starters, he recently revealed OpenAI's future strategy would be not to automate everything but to allow people to make better decisions as AI improves their lives, particularly as it expects an AGI world to be here by 2028. "Entirely automating everything is not the future we want", Altman declared, as he described how OpenAI is now looking to opens a "third phase" and aims to build technology "to benefit everyone". In May 2026, Altman also criticized companies blaming job cuts on AI - but did admit the technology has some accountability in displacing human workers. "I would expect that the real impact of AI on jobs, in the next few years, to begin to be palpable," Altman explained, adding that "Of course we'll find new kinds of jobs." Days later, Altman said he would be "delighted to be wrong" about the effect of AI on human roles, hitting out at claims the increasing global usage of AI technology worldwide will lead to a "jobs apocalypse". "I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened," Altman said, who also admitted that while he believed OpenAI has been "roughly right" on the technological predictions it made when it launched ChatGPT in 2022, they were "pretty wrong" on the social and economic implications. At the time of writing, 252 companies have announced job cuts in 2026 so far, leading to 124,255 employees losing their roles (via Layoffs.fyi) - people who, I suppose, do now have a lot more free time than they expected. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Sam Altman Says Even the Power of AI Will Never Lead to a Shorter Work Week

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has some bad news to share: AI will never lead to a shorter work week -- despite having already ushered in the singularity, in his dubious telling. During an appearance on the "Relentless" podcast, the billionaire reflected that "somehow we never get the promise of the four-hour work week at mass scale in society," despite tech "promising people that they're going to work less and they're going to have all this leisure." "And I don't expect AI to change that," Altman added. Instead of striving for a healthier work-life balance, one of the rare positive -- albeit entirely hypothetical -- outcomes of the business world's current obsession with generative AI, the CEO said we'd ultimately be happier if we keep our heads down and keep grinding. "I think we're all going to be much busier than we thought we were supposed to be in a post-superintelligence world," he said during the podcast. "We're still going to complain about it, but secretly we're going to be happy." Tech executives have long promised that work could soon be a thing of the past thanks to extremely capable AI models taking care of all the menial labor, allowing us to focus on doing what we love instead. Altman has a far more sobering take on the matter, asserting that we're all rats in a maze and that we secretly love it. The CEO's comments are a perfect example of how tech leaders are significantly shift their narrative. Instead of freeing up workers to pursue what they're actually passionate about by letting AI do all the brunt work, they're now saying, the tech will simply empower them to do more. In practice, that means AI is forcing employees to work harder, not less, an "intensification" of roles that's already leading to widespread burnout. Then there's the ever-present threat of being laid off as business leaders vow to replace jobs with AI, a reality that has devastating psychological impacts, according to psychiatrists. Those who remain employed are often shouldered with the responsibilities of their departed coworkers, compounding their woes. It's a sad predicament that even those at the forefront of AI don't envision the situation getting any better as the tech improves. While lawmakers like Vermont senator Bernie Sanders continue to push for a four-day work week facilitated by AI, tech leaders have seemingly moved on from the idea. Besides, to assume that the increasing workload brought on by the advent of AI will ultimately make us "happy" feels like a slap in the face coming from a man who's played a major role in eviscerating the job market and making life more expensive. More on Sam Altman: Sam Altman Announces That the Singularity Has Arrived