- OpenAI proposes a four-day work week to share AI productivity gains with employees
- The report suggests 32-hour workweek pilots with no pay cuts, maintaining output levels
- Benefits bonuses tied to productivity gains would enhance financial security and time off
As generative artificial intelligence (AI) transforms workplaces, OpenAI is proposing a four-day work week to help ensure employees benefit from increased productivity as routine workload declines and operating costs fall. In a new 13-page report titled "Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age: Ideas to Keep People First", the ChatGPT maker outlined strategies for governments to keep AI human-centric and ensure that the technology benefits society as a whole.
"Incentivise employers and unions to run time-bound 32-hour/four-day workweek pilots with no loss in pay that hold output and service levels constant, then convert reclaimed hours into a permanent shorter week, bankable paid time off, or both," the report highlighted.
Additionally, OpenAI also proposed "benefits bonuses" tied to productivity gains, allowing workers to receive the efficiency dividend in the form of both long-term financial security and increased personal time.
The report highlighted that the rapid reduction in time taken by AI tools to complete tasks indicated a transition to a society where organisations will fundamentally change the way they work.
"Frontier systems have advanced from supporting tasks that take people minutes to complete to tasks that take them hours to complete. If progress continues, we can expect systems to be capable of carrying out projects that currently take people months," it added.
"This shift will reshape how organisations run, how knowledge is created, and how people find meaning and opportunity. It will also highlight the limitations of today's policy toolkit and the need for more ambitious ideas to keep people at the centre of the transition to superintelligence."
Public Wealth Fund
Apart from suggesting a change in work hours, the report also batted for the creation of a "public wealth fund" that would give every member of society a stake in AI-driven economic growth.
"Policymakers and AI companies should work together to determine how to best seed the Fund, which could invest in diversified, long-term assets that capture growth in both AI companies and the broader set of firms adopting and deploying AI," it added.
OpenAI stated that the returns from the fund could be distributed directly to citizens, allowing more people to participate directly in the upside of AI-driven growth, regardless of their starting wealth or access to capital.
