OpenAI's chief economist says this is what it takes to work on his team at the ChatGPT maker

Ronnie Chatterji leads a team of researchers at OpenAI who study how AI is affecting workers, employers, and the broader economy.

Courtesy of OpenAI OpenAI's economics team studies the effects of AI on workers, businesses, and the broader economy.

The company's chief economist, Ronnie Chatterji, says researchers on his team need to be flexible.

A Duke professor and former White House official, Chatterji says collaboration and self-direction are also key.

At OpenAI , understanding AI's impact on jobs is a job in itself.

Employees on the company's economic research team are tasked with studying how the technology is affecting workers, businesses, institutions, and the broader economy.

The ChatGPT maker's chief economist , Ronnie Chatterji, says thriving in these roles takes a particular mix of skills and mindsets because AI's rapid evolution can quickly send the work in new directions.

For example, recursive self-improvement — the ability for AI systems to improve themselves — wasn't on Chatterji's radar a year ago but is now a topic his team is studying.

"The job description is changing a lot," he told Business Insider.

From the White House to OpenAI Chatterji came to OpenAI in 2024 after stints at the highest levels of economic policymaking.

He served in the Biden White House as coordinator of the $52 billion CHIPS program and as acting deputy director of the National Economic Council.

Before that, he was chief economist at the Commerce Department.

He has also spent much of his career at Duke University, where he is a professor of business and public policy.

OpenAI wasn't on Chatterji's radar.