With each passing week, it’s becoming increasingly clear that whenever executives from major AI development companies participate in interviews, whether friendly or not, they often end up enraging the artistic community. They seem unable to resist admitting that their AI innovations will replace human jobs, while simultaneously performing mental gymnastics to justify why this displacement is beneficial.

Take, for example, a recent interview with Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, conducted by Dartmouth Engineering. Previously criticized for dodging questions about the training methods of OpenAI’s text-to-video AI, Sora, Murati once again stirred controversy. During the discussion about AI’s impact on human creativity, she admitted that AI’s expansion would lead to job losses, provoking widespread anger among digital and real-life artists.

Murati added fuel to the fire by suggesting that jobs taken over by AI “shouldn’t have been here in the first place.” This statement implied that AI mainly affects beginners and low-skilled creators, an interpretation that many found insulting. The backlash was swift, with viewers disliking the original video en masse and flooding social media with angry comments.

In an attempt to mitigate the fallout, Murati later took to Twitter to clarify her remarks. She argued that there is a distinction “between temporary creative tasks and those that add lasting meaning and value to society,” seemingly suggesting that only high-quality, museum-worthy art deserves protection from AI’s encroachment. Her statement read: “Just like spreadsheets changed things for accountants and bookkeepers, AI tools can handle tasks like writing online ads or creating generic images and templates. But it’s important to recognize the difference between temporary creative tasks and those that add lasting meaning and value to society. With AI tools taking on more repetitive or mechanistic aspects of the creative process, human creators can focus on higher-level creative thinking and choices. This lets artists stay in control of their vision and focus their energy on the most important parts of their work.”

Despite her efforts, Murati’s clarification did little to quell the anger. The lengthy statement, filled with buzzwords, seemed to bury the core message, further frustrating the artistic community.

What do you think about all this? How do you feel about Murati’s and OpenAI’s stance on human artists? Do you have a job that “shouldn’t have been here in the first place”? Share your thoughts in the comments!