Sam Altman’s Blunt Warning at IIT Delhi: “Don’t Trust Me — Or Any Old Person — on Your AI Career”

Crux Summary:
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited IIT Delhi (around Feb 23-25, 2026) and delivered a no-holds-barred message to students: the biggest mistake young people are making while preparing for the AI era is “listening to old people” for career advice — including traditional paths pushed by parents or even his own predictions about how fast things will change. He urged them to quickly build and trust their own intuitions because the world is shifting too rapidly for old maps to work. Some jobs will vanish, but exciting new ones (that don’t even exist yet) will appear. He encouraged embracing risk (especially relevant in risk-averse India), highlighted “zero-person companies” as a huge underrated opportunity, and said the biggest transformation in the next 5 years will be in education. Balanced take: don’t be blindly excited or fearful about AI — be thoughtful.

In a packed hall at IIT Delhi, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman didn’t come to deliver the usual “follow your dreams” speech. He came to shatter illusions — and he did it with trademark candour.

When a student asked him, “What is the biggest mistake you see young people make right now when they prepare for AI?”, Altman’s reply was instant and brutal:

“I think listening to old people is the biggest mistake young people make.”

The auditorium must have gone dead silent for a second.

He immediately softened the blow for parents in the room (or watching online). Parents, he said, are still the best people to listen to when it comes to living a happy life or being a good human being. But for career strategy in 2026 and beyond?

“The traditional career advice is probably not going to work as well. You will have to quickly develop your own intuitions and trust them.”

And then came the mic-drop moment aimed squarely at himself:

“For a predictor of what the world is going to be like going forward, I don’t think you should trust me for having good intuition of the rate of change. Young people always figure this out the best.”

That’s Sam Altman — the man who runs one of the most powerful AI companies on Earth — publicly telling IITians: Even I might be wrong about how fast this is all moving. You kids will get it better than me.

The AI Future: Jobs Will Disappear… and Brand-New Ones Will Appear

Altman refused to paint AI as either utopia or doomsday. He called out the lazy thinking on both sides:

“Anyone who says they’re only excited or only fearful about AI is not being very thoughtful.”

Yes, some jobs will “totally go away.” But the flip side? Many of today’s students will eventually work in roles that don’t even exist today as a concept. The most underrated opportunity, he said, is building “zero-person companies” — businesses that run almost entirely on AI with minimal or no human staff.

And the single biggest area of change in the next five years? Education itself.

Especially for Indian Students: Stop Being So Risk-Averse

Altman singled out Indian culture’s love for stability:

“Most people, especially in India, are especially averse to risk. My willingness to fail allows me to succeed.”

If you want to thrive in this new world, he implied, you have to get comfortable failing — fast, often, and publicly.

Why This Speech Matters

This wasn’t just another tech billionaire talking. This was a direct challenge to the Indian middle-class dream: the IIT → stable job → safe career pipeline that has defined success for decades.

Altman’s message to Gen-Z and Alpha in India is simple and liberating:

• The old playbook is obsolete.
• Your intuition > anyone else’s outdated advice.
• The world you inherit will be radically different — and you are the ones who will actually understand it best.

India is already positioning itself as a global AI leader. But that leadership won’t come from following yesterday’s rules. It will come from the young engineers in that IIT Delhi hall who decide to trust themselves more than the generation before them.

So, future founders, researchers, and builders — take note.

The man who helped create ChatGPT just told you: Don’t trust me. Trust yourselves.

What do you think?
Will you follow traditional career advice or bet on your own instincts in the AI age? Drop your thoughts in the comments — especially if you’re a student or recent grad.

@parashar