OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has cautioned that artificial intelligence (AI) may lead to the complete elimination of certain job sectors. During his appearance at the Capital Framework for Large Banks conference, organized by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, he singled out customer service positions as being particularly vulnerable to automation.
The founder of OpenAI stated that the shift in the customer service industry is essentially finished, telling Michelle Bowman, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision: “Now you call one of these things and AI answers. It’s like a super-smart, capable person. There’s no phone tree, there’s no transfers. It can do everything that any customer support agent at that company could do. It does not make mistakes. It’s very quick. You call once, the thing just happens, it’s done.”
AI tools have already reached a level of sophistication:
Altman noted that AI tools have already reached a level of sophistication where they can manage everything from simple inquiries to more intricate problems—entirely without human involvement. He emphasized that AI systems are now incredibly quick, precise, and efficient, often outperforming human representatives by eliminating common mistakes and wait times.
“That’s a category where I just say, you know what, when you call customer support, you’re on target and AI, and that’s fine,” he said.
Focus to the healthcare sector:
The OpenAI founder then shifted the focus to the healthcare sector, suggesting that AI has now outpaced human doctors in diagnostic accuracy. However, he stopped short of endorsing AI as the exclusive provider of medical care.
“ChatGPT today, by the way, most of the time, can give you better – it’s like, a better diagnostician than most doctors in the world,” he said. “Yet people still go to doctors, and I am not, like, maybe I’m a dinosaur here, but I really do not want to, like, entrust my medical fate to ChatGPT with no human doctor in the loop,” he noted.