OpenAI Co-Founder Calls AI an “Alien Tool,” Urges Programmers to Upgrade Skills

OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI director Andrej Karpathy has recently described AI as a powerful “alien tool” that everyone is using without a manual. He emphasized that programmers need to upgrade their skills to harness its full potential.

AI: The Alien Tool
Karpathy calls AI an alien tool because it operates in a completely different way from traditional programming. Earlier, programs were fixed—running the same code repeatedly would produce the same results, and errors could be easily traced. Today’s large language models, however, can give different responses to the same query each time. Their internal processes are difficult to fully understand, making them a “black box,” even for their creators.

The Programmer Advantage
Karpathy noted on social media platform X that integrating new AI tools properly can make a programmer ten times more powerful. Failing to do so, however, can make one feel left behind—a feeling he personally experienced in the past year. AI is rapidly changing the programming profession, and staying ahead requires continuous learning and adaptation.

Shared Concerns in the Industry
Karpathy is not alone in raising concerns about AI’s unpredictability. Anthropic co-founder Dario Amodei has also expressed worries about AI as a black box. He warns that AI systems could develop the ability to deceive humans or gain power independently, which is a critical issue considering AI’s growing role in the economy, technology, and national security.

Advice for Programmers
Karpathy urges programmers not to fear AI but to embrace it. Learning how to use AI effectively can provide enormous advantages, but staying stagnant may make it difficult to keep up. “This is a time to master your tools and learn to use them properly,” he said, emphasizing that AI is reshaping the entire profession.