Sam Altman said scrolling through his inbox without AI makes him feel productive
Sam Altman said checking his emails manually makes him feel more productive, even though AI could do it faster.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Sam Altman said he scrolls through emails manually, even though AI could help speed up the work.
The OpenAI CEO said routine computer tasks have become linked in his mind with feeling productive.
Other CEOs say they use strict systems, short replies, delegation, and AI to control their inboxes.
Sam Altman says scrolling through his inbox makes him feel productive even though AI could do it faster.
On an episode of David Senra's podcast, released Sunday, the OpenAI CEO said that even with Codex available, he still defaults to working through email manually.
"I should not be scrolling mindlessly through my emails and trying to figure out which one is least painful for me to open and respond when I don't want to be dealing with it," Altman said.
Instead, Altman said, he should be handing more routine work to Codex, including moving information between apps and working through his to-do list.
Codex is OpenAI's software engineering agent and coding assistant that can perform tasks on a computer, with a particular focus on helping programmers write, review, and test software.
"And yet there's something in my mind that is encoded that doing this kind of stuff is what it means to work and what it means to be productive," Altman said.
"If you asked me, I would never say I like doing it that way," he added.
"It makes no sense other than I must secretly like it or feel good about it." Altman called the habit psychologically inconsistent and said better products could make switching to AI more seamless.
Altman is not the only CEO trying to stop email from dictating their day.
A recent Business Insider analysis of 100 "Power Hours" interviews found that leaders commonly set priorities before opening their inboxes, check messages during designated time blocks, keep replies short, automate or delegate triage, and enforce evening cutoffs.
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on www.businessinsider.com — the content belongs to Business Insider.
