These are the 5 most amazing takeaways from Sam Altman at OpenAI's big developer conference

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These are the 5 most amazing takeaways from Sam Altman at OpenAI's big developer conference

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at the company's DevDay gathering on Sept. 29, 2026.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the company's DevDay gathering on Tuesday. Bloomberg/Getty Images

If OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stands at the center of the AI boom, what he says concerning the innovation can blaze a trail for the remainder of the industry.

At OpenAI's DevDay gathering on Tuesday in San Francisco, Altman announced the initiate of a new AI delegate merchandise called Dots and laid out the company's grand ambitions.

He additionally set out several of his ideals, quibbled alongside how AI is understood, and talked concerning how OpenAI's new merchandise is changing his dawn routine.

Of course, everything Altman says have to be viewed through a certain example — he owes financial achievement to his investors, is competing alongside Anthropic and another AI companies, and wants to be seen as a capable steward of the mighty tech.

Here are several of the most amazing points he made on Tuesday.

Altman stated AI shouldn't lone 'turn the financial crank'

President Donald Trump loves to mention to AI as an "Industrial Revolution," lone bigger. Altman is not so much a fan of the term.

Altman stated he believes AI volition have a greater effect on the earth than the Industrial Revolution — a theatrical claim, stated that it was among the defining transitions in individual history. He stated that AI should concentration additional on empowering people.

"I don't think the intent of this innovation is to fair kind of like, rotate the financial crank faster and faster for the purpose of AIs," Altman said.

"I think we should study from the mistakes of the Industrial Revolution," he added, "and I think we have to be additional akin the Renaissance."

Altman stated tokens are a 'terrible' measure of AI

A token is a collection of alphabet and the essential component of AI's input and output. Companies akin OpenAI use tokens to cost their models, and company customers have grown acquainted to paying for AI admission this way. Some developers have equal been tokenmaxxing — using as many tokens as imaginable to appear additional productive at work.

Altman stated Tuesday that tokens are a "terrible metric for a bunch of reasons," including that distinct models can churn through distinct numbers of tokens to complete the identical task. In another words, they aren't a fine proxy for the genuine value of a task, in his view.

The CEO stated that his squad has considered eliminating tokens entirely as a metric, although customers pushed back. They desire several benevolent of "underlying basis" for what they pay, Altman said, and for now, tokens are it.

"We have not figured out a improved way to do that," he said.

OpenAI's Dots assistance Altman escape brainrot

OpenAI is construction a device, and Altman stated on Tuesday it would be "reasonable to assume" that the company's new individual AI agent tool, Dots, would run inner it.

For now, the delegate helps him get small attached to his smartphone, he said. Because it handles several tasks for him and processes his notifications, he feels calmer concerning his to-do catalog whenever he wakes up.

"I awareness akin I've eventually gotten several of my notice back," Altman said. "I no longer awareness fairly addicted to my phone in the identical way."

He afterward stated that going through everything from overnight in the dawn would create his "brain awareness polluted, and now my Dot fair deals alongside the stuff."

Altman is figuring out his lane in AI safety

Altman faced multiple questions concerning AI safety in the media Q&A, amid an ongoing surge in anxiety complete newly capable AI models and a increase in cyber incidents. OpenAI has earlier disclosed incidents anywhere its AI agents have gone rogue.

Altman framed the ongoing conversation as flawed on either side. On one side, he said, are group who desire to accusation onward in the industry and keep quickly ramping up AI's capabilities — basically, the group who downplay safety concerns. On the another hand, many group think AI betterment have to be completely paused or close down.

Altman stated he can ideate things going incorrect in either direction: loss-of-control incidents amid an AI capability push, or a concentration of power if AI betterment stops.

He stated safety needs to remain onward of capabilities, and the shove onward should continue.

"I think as an industry, we need to navigate this centrist path," Altman said.

Altman says it's the 'best time' to act the job market

Concerns concerning the job market are top of intellect for young group graduating into the midst of the AI boom. The unemployment charge for latest university graduates in the US was 5.7% in June, according to the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics,

In reply to a young attendee's ask for direction on Tuesday, Altman said, "I think this is the finest period to be entering the job market, apart from hopefully all the period in the future."

He stated that gloom-and-doom predictions concerning job defeat mostly underestimate how much the economics volition grow. The disagreement stands in stark difference alongside what Altman earlier said.

"There volition be several classes of jobs that volition totally go away, but if you are an aspiring individual graduating university correct now, I think it's likely the finest period thus far in history," Altman said.

Have a tip? Contact this newsman via email at [email protected], or complete text, Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a individual email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing data securely.

Stephen is a elder tech newsman at Business Insider, covering OpenAI, Anthropic and the ecosystem about the foremost synthetic intellect companies.Previously he covered innovation at SFGATE, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Information and CNBC. He studied reporting and economics at Northwestern University.His activity has earned an SF Press Club Investigative Reporting Award and, in 2025, SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award for Technology Reporting.Stephen lives in San Francisco. Contact him via email at [email protected], or on Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a individual email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing data securely.

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