Sam Altman, the mercurial CEO of AI lab OpenAI, appears to be changing his messaging on artificial intelligence and its potential impact on jobs. In a recent interview with The Advocate, Altman emphasized that AI should be seen as a “tool” rather than a potentially autonomous “creature.”

This represents a pivot from his previous statements predicting mass unemployment from AI within decades. The new “tools not creatures” talking point comes amid growing public concern about AI eliminating human roles. Framing cutting-edge systems like chatbot ChatGPT as helpful “tools” rather than replacement workers allows Altman to continue hyping OpenAI’s capabilities while avoiding anxieties about technological unemployment.

However, the tool framing contradicts OpenAI’s own products and stated goals. ChatGPT is designed to act like a human conversationalist, fostering quasi-social relationships with users. And OpenAI researchers openly discuss developing AI “agents” that can act with a high degree of autonomy across different situations.

As public discourse evolves around AI’s societal impacts, OpenAI’s ever-quotable CEO appears eager to reframe the narrative in ways that flatter his company’s capabilities while dismissing the more dystopian scenarios he helped promote. But the actual facts on the ground leave plenty of room for people to continue viewing AI as more “creature” than “tool.”