Altman Says AI Can Handle Parts of White-Collar Jobs as Capabilities Grow

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI can perform many duties within white-collar jobs and is now mostly smarter than top scientists, signaling broader capabilities across knowledge work.

At the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) on Nov. 2, Altman said people must remain in control as AI advances. He also said he did not expect all responsibilities to shift from people to machines.

Altman put typical monthly use at about 100,000 tokens per person. Tokens measure text processed in prompts and AI responses. For institutions at the high end, he cited a monthly volume of roughly 500 billion tokens.

Altman described electricity supply as a significant challenge for the industry and said power systems need to scale with AI. During the same ADIPEC appearance, he also discussed AI efficiency and data-center power use.