After introducing AI to world, OpenAI Chairman is now sad about letting AI do his work

OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor says it is emotionally difficult to stop writing code even as AI tools become capable of doing much of the work. His remarks come as developers across the industry debate how AI will change the role of software engineers.

OpenAI was the first company to introduce AI to the world and now, one of its top executive is feeling sad about letting AI do his work. This is not at all surprising. AI is changing how software is built, but the transition is not always easy for the people who spent years mastering the craft of writing code. As AI tools become capable of generating and fixing programs on their own, even some of the leaders driving this transformation say they are struggling to emotionally detach from a skill that once defined their careers. Bret Taylor, who is the chairman of OpenAI, spoke about this dilemma during a conversation on the "Cheeky Pint" podcast hosted by John Collison. While AI systems are becoming increasingly capable of handling programming tasks, Taylor admitted that stepping away from writing code himself has not been easy.

During the podcast, Taylor explained that he is trying to adapt to a future where engineers may rely more on AI tools rather than writing every line of code manually. However, he acknowledged that the adjustment has been difficult on a personal level.

"I am trying to get to a world where I'm not writing code," Taylor said. "It's hard, emotionally, if that makes any sense. I have a hard time not caring."

For many software engineers, coding is not simply a technical task but a craft developed over years of practice. Taylor said he used to take pride in how carefully written code could solve complex problems in an elegant way.

"I was proud of the elegance of the code that I wrote," he said. "But if I still care about the craftsmanship, what do I want? I haven't quite visualized it yet." He added that he still values accuracy and reliability in the programs being created, but is trying to rethink how attached he should be to writing code himself.

"I've been trying to force myself to not care because I feel like I won't be a self-actualized software engineer in the future if I'm too precious about that artifact which used to be so central to me," Taylor said.