Sam Altman says Developers Make Record Salaries, But Future of Programming Jobs Is Unclear

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman praised the current state of programming jobs, saying developers are making more money than ever and are "hugely more productive" with AI tools. But he admitted he has no idea whether there will be more or fewer programming jobs in 5-10 years during a recent interview with Tucker Carlson.

The contradiction reveals the uncertainty even AI company leaders have about what their technology will do to the jobs it's supposed to help.

The Current Programming Boom

When asked which jobs will be lost to AI, Altman highlighted programming as particularly unpredictable but currently booming.

"A job that I feel like way less certain about what the future looks for looks like for is computer programmers," Altman said. "What it means to be a computer programmer today is very different than what it meant 2 years ago."

He explained that current developers "are able to use these AI tools to just be hugely more productive, but it's still a person there and they're like able to generate way more code, make way more money than ever before."

The reason for the surge, according to Altman: "And it turns out that the world wanted so much more software than the world previously had capacity to create that there's just incredible demand overhang."

But Altman Can't Predict What Happens Next

Despite the current success, Altman was direct about his uncertainty when looking ahead.

"But if we fast forward another 5 or 10 years, what does that look like? Is it more jobs or less? That one I'm uncertain on," he said.

This puts programming in a unique category compared to other jobs Altman discussed.

Customer Support Gone, Nursing Safe

Altman was definitive about customer support roles disappearing.

"I'm confident that a lot of current customer support that happens over a phone or computer, those people will lose their jobs and that'll be better done by an AI," he said.

He also said nursing jobs would remain safe: "I think people really want the deep human connection with a person in that time. And no matter how good the advice of the AI is or the robot or whatever, like you'll really want that."

Programming sits between these extremes - neither definitively safe nor definitively doomed.

Altman Compares AI Changes to Historical Patterns

When asked about job displacement, Altman referenced historical patterns rather than making dramatic predictions.

"Someone told me recently that the historical average is about 50% of jobs significantly change. Maybe they don't totally go away but significantly change every 75 years on average," Altman said.

He added: "And my controversial take would be that this is going to be like a punctuated equilibrium moment where a lot of that will happen in a short period of time."

For current programmers, this means they're in a golden period with high demand and rising salaries, but the future remains completely uncertain even to the person building the technology that could change everything.