OpenAI promised the 4-day workweek, but its employees tell a very different story

For the last few years we kept saying AI was going to take our jobs away. For the last few months we were calling for a 4-day workweek because of the productivity gains AI brings. Now, employees at OpenAI, Anthropic and other artificial intelligence companies are telling a very different story: up to 90 hours of work a week.

Inside OpenAI, the pace is very different: the exception or the norm?

According to the BBC’s original reporting, a former OpenAI employee says that they worked 70 hours a week and went into the office on weekends to keep projects on track. During sprint periods, several OpenAI and Anthropic workers speak of weeks exceeding 90 hours of work.

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A UC Berkeley study, cited by the BBC, followed hundreds of workers at an American tech company for eight months. According to the results, employees worked faster, took on more tasks and, in addition, worked longer hours.

If every minute we gain thanks to AI efficiency can turn into time for new tasks, the reduction simply disappears. Add to that the fact that, as is usually the case, tasks take a bit more time than we initially tend to expect, the possible reduction in working hours really seems far off.

The four-day workweek remains very attractive, but those building the AIs that should make it possible show that work is still fundamentally human.