After GPT-5.5 release, Sam Altman warns AGI could trigger ‘economic collapse’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is once again in the spotlight due to its unsettling statement envisioning Artificial General Intelligence-powered future of humanity.

In a recent post shared on X, Sam Altman predicted that the post-AGI era will be flooded with mass employment, where humans would not go to work or may be they lose relevancy to work opportunities. In such a scenario, the economy would unlikely survive.

Altman said, “Post-AGI, no one is going to work and the economy is going to collapse.”

AGI is a stage in the evolution of artificial intelligence where these models could easily outperform human reasoning.

However, the other part of the statement is not only interesting but also contradicts the former one.

He continued, “I am switching to polyphasic sleep because GPT-5.5 in codex is so good that I can't afford to be sleeping for such long stretches and miss out on working.”

This statement shows the willingness of the CEO to sacrifice his sleep for tech to enhance its unprecedented capabilities that will later drive disruption in the job market.

These comments come after ChatGPT released its new model GPT-5.5, describing it as the smartest and most intuitive model so far.

The model is designed to excel across diverse domains like creative writing, programming, coding, data analysis, research and programming. At the heart of its upgrade lies advanced intent recognition.

Users no longer need to provide exhaustive prompts; GPT-5.5 is designed to grasp the "why" behind a request, delivering more accurate results with less guidance.

. Built to excel across diverse domains like programming, creative writing, and complex data analysis, the model’s primary leap forward lies in its advanced intent recognition. Users no longer need to provide exhaustive prompts; GPT-5.5 is designed to grasp the "why" behind a request, delivering more accurate results with less guidance.

“GPT‑5.5 brings us closer to the feeling that the model can actually use the computer with you: seeing what’s on screen, clicking, typing, navigating interfaces, and moving across tools with precision,” the ChatGPT-maker company said.