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Sam Altman Says He Still Scrolls His Inbox Despite Codex Automation

The admission highlights how habit and imperfect tools keep people doing routine work and puts pressure on OpenAI to make AI delegation easier before its public listing.

Overview

  • Sam Altman told David Senra that he still manually scrolls and triages his email because the task feels productive even though he believes Codex could handle routine work.
  • Altman said he ought to delegate tasks like moving information between apps and managing his to‑do list to Codex, describing his current habit as psychologically inconsistent.
  • He framed the workforce as “straddling two worlds,” using familiar manual workflows while experimenting with AI agents that can automate triage and simple computer tasks.
  • Some executives already use scripts and summaries to cut inbox load, with examples including Klaviyo CEO Andrew Bialecki’s daily consolidated summaries and Siemens CEO Roland Busch’s brief replies.
  • The comments come during OpenAI’s media push as the company prepares for a public listing, and they highlight a practical product challenge: designers must make delegation feel reliable and natural for people to abandon manual email routines.