--- title: "Sam Altman Says Gen Z Are Lame for Not Worshipping AI" description: "OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized young jobseekers who aren't embracing AI, and said that AI's disruption of the job market is a good thing." date: "2026-10-30" modified: "2026-10-30" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/sam-altman-gen-z-lame-not-worshipping-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" --- # Sam Altman Says Gen Z Are Lame for Not Worshipping AI ![A color-treated photo of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman]() *Kevin Dietsch / Futurism* OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sympathizes with Gen Zers entering the job market. It's just unfortunate that the AI tools he's responsible for ushering into the world are completely upending the nature of work and finding a job. "It's totally true that huge numbers of tasks that people do today will be done better, cheaper, and faster by AI — and completely differently," Altman said in an [interview]() with Stanford's Graduate School of Business, [as quoted by *Fortune*](). This, according to Altman, actually presents an opportunity. He argues that all the tumult caused by AI is a good thing, as it gives ambitious Gen Zers who are willing to embrace AI an opportunity to catapult their careers or launch a business. "I think you want to be starting your career at a time of the highest degree of change," Altman said. He then dissed Gen Zers who aren't getting with the times. "My chronic disappointment with MBA students is that they always want to go do the thing that was cool five years ago and not do the new thing," Altman said. "I think this is a great time to go do the new thing." But the interviewer pointed out the obvious flaw in Altman's logic. "So go do the new thing, even if AI is the cool thing right now," she said almost incredulously, eliciting a roar of laughter from the crowd. The thing is, AI isn't that far away from being what was "cool five years ago." The excitement that bubbled from ChatGPT's release in November 2022, and the wave of AI optimism in the year that followed, feels like it happened a lifetime ago. After that, public opinion on AI quickly began to sour. Artists and tastemakers certainly didn't embrace it. But businesses rapidly integrated AI tools in an effort to economize their operations, [automate tasks](), [surveil workers](), and [justify layoffs](). In short, AI is no longer "cool," if it ever was. It's now an inescapable part of our reality. Basically every programmer uses AI at work. Jobseekers are interviewed by AI models. It's so pervasive now that even tech founders are getting sick of it; Paul Graham, the cofounder of startup accelerator Y Combinator, [acted as a weathervane]() when he said that he views AI writing in the pitches he receives as a sign of laziness. **More on AI:** [*Stock Market Bloodbath Spikes Fears of AI Bubble Burst*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Gen Z Appears to Be Reversing No-Drinking Trend, Now Lurching Toward Alcoholism]() - [Gen Z Is Turning Against AI in an Incredible Way]() - [Gen Z Arriving at College Unable to Read]() - [Gen Z Is Apparently Baffled by Basic Technology]() - [Gen Z Helicopter Parents Are So Intense That They’re Calling Hiring Managers to Interfere]() - [Sam Altman’s Right-Hand Man Says AI Is Overhyped]() - [Sam Altman Says the Quiet Part Out Loud, Believes We’re in an AI Bubble]() - [Sam Altman Says Human-Tier AI Is Coming Soon]()