OpenAI's Sam Altman on taking risks: ‘Traditional careers may not work anymore’

Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, emphasizes taking risks in career choices, advocating for unconventional paths over traditional routes.

Sam Altman- now OpenAI CEO- dropped out of Stanford to build Loopt, a location-based social networking app before co-founding the ChatGPT maker. In an interview, he said that at the time it “seemed like a really fun thing to try" as he could afford to take the risk because he could always go resume his education if things didn’t work out.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that he believes regret from untried opportunities can hinder long-term satisfaction, especially as AI disrupts established career norms. (AFP)

He said, “That’s the key to most risk, is most things are not a one-way door. You can try something, it doesn’t work out, you can undo it, you can do something else.”

Owing to this, it is pertinent to take the right risks but that doesn't mean that one should avoid taking altogether, he said adding, "The risky thing is to not go try the things that might really work out because regret can kick in. You kind of look back at your career 10, 20, 30 years later and say, ‘Man, I wish I had tried the thing I really wanted to try. You should just put a huge premium on doing that anytime you feel like you might say that later.”

Sam Altman also said that students and young professionals should be more open to taking unconventional career paths as the traditional route of going to college, getting a job and staying there “forever” may not offer be the most financially secure option anymore.

He said, “Now I think the traditional path is, I won’t say falling apart, but it’s quite challenged. And AI will probably disrupt things even more and put more variants in the traditional path.”