OpenAI Hires Economists To Figure Out If AI Will Steal Your Job Or Just Whisper About It

KEY POINTS

•Ronnie Chatterji joined OpenAI in 2024 after working on the $52 billion CHIPS program and as acting deputy director of the National Economic Council.
•He now leads a diverse team of economists and data scientists studying AI's effects on work, businesses, and the broader economy.
•Chatterji emphasizes collaboration, rapid adaptability, and self-direction due to AI's fast-paced and unpredictable evolution.

Ronnie Chatterji, a 48-year-old Duke professor and ex-Biden White House econ guru who once coordinated a $52 billion chip bonanza, now leads about a dozen brainiacs at OpenAI investigating how AI messes with jobs, businesses, and the entire economy. Initially clueless about recursive self-improvement—a fancy term for AI leveling up on its own—his team now treats it like their new pet project. Rumor has it the dataset ending in June was extinct by August. Chatterji says it's a high-speed, shape-shifting gig requiring folks to 'be comfortable with being uncomfortable'—basically the economic version of a roller coaster without seat belts. Meanwhile, Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s finance chief, presumably still panics about whether their budgets keep up with AI's wild growth spurt.