Sam Altman Calls for Learning to ‘Use AI Tools Well’ Instead of Programming

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes that mastering AI tools is currently the top challenge for anyone looking to learn to code. In a recent interview, he also added that AI algorithms that help code are already being used by major companies.

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In a conversation with US analyst Ben Thompson, the head of OpenAI said that when he was finishing school, the obvious tactical task was to learn how to code well. Nowadays, Altman believes, “the obvious tactical task is just to learn how to use AI tools really well.”

That view is shared by many other top tech executives, who note that AI is getting better at writing code. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said this month that AI will write all the code for software engineers within a year. Meta✴ CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said earlier this year that his company is working on a new AI algorithm that will be able to write “most of the code in our apps.”

Altman sees learning AI tools as the “new version” of learning to code, adding that at least half of the coding work is now automated. “I think it’s over 50% in many companies. I think agent coding, which no one is really doing yet, is going to be a big thing,” Altman added.

Asked about OpenAI’s plans to hire software engineers, Altman said there’s plenty of work right now. But he noted that in the long term, it’s the AI ​​being built now that could lead to a shrinking labor market. “My guess is that every software engineer is going to be overloaded with work for a while. And then, at some point, maybe we actually need fewer software engineers,” Altman said.