Sam Altman Just Dropped 8 Hard Truths About the Future of AI

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In a candid, unscripted Q&A, the OpenAI CEO dismantled the biggest myths about coding, startups, and the economy in 2026.

Shane Collins

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On January 27, 2026, there were no PowerPoint slides. There were no flashy product demos or scripted PR speeches.

Just Sam Altman, a room full of anxious developers in San Francisco, and one hour of raw, unpolished Q&A.

The questions were the ones keeping everyone awake at night: Is my coding job dead? How do startups survive when anyone can build software? Is AI going to break society?

Altman didn’t offer comforting platitudes. Instead, he offered a pragmatic, sometimes uncomfortable look at the reality of the next 24 months. He dismantled the binary fear that “AI will either fix everything or kill everyone” and replaced it with a nuanced roadmap of what is actually happening.

Here are the 8 critical insights from that session, translated into actionable strategies for the Western market.

1. The “Jevons Paradox” of Coding

The Fear: AI writes code faster than humans; therefore, software engineers are doomed.