Overview
- UC Berkeley’s Stuart Russell said leaders are “staring 80% unemployment in the face” as AI systems learn tasks across professions, including surgery and software.
- Russell argued that boards could pressure executives to hand key decisions to AI, suggesting even CEO roles may be supplanted to keep pace with competitors.
- Geoffrey Hinton told Senator Bernie Sanders that massive unemployment is very likely as companies invest heavily in AI that can work more cheaply than humans.
- Hinton tied the push to replace workers to profit incentives, while Russell criticized current AI development as “appalling” and likened industry risk-taking to “Russian roulette.”
- Countering these warnings, leaders such as Jensen Huang, Yann LeCun, Sundar Pichai, and Sam Altman have predicted that AI will transform jobs rather than eliminate most work.