- Ford CEO Jim Farley believes half of white-collar jobs will be lost to AI
- Amazon, Anthropic, Fiverr and other companies all agree
- Unsurprisingly, OpenAI and Nvidia think we’re overreacting
Ford CEO Jim Farley has stated he believes “literally half” of all white-collar jobs in the US could be lost to artificial intelligence (via TechSpot).
Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Farley stated, “Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US…AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.”
This of course comes from the automaker responsible for revolutionizing the manufacturing process, and aligns with similar expressions shared by other influential execs.
Will AI take my job?
Despite widespread warnings from business leaders and analysts globally, AI’s real effects on the human workforce are yet to be fully determined – countering this common view, many believe AI might simply redefine roles, removing some and creating others.
AI is certainly on track to replace some roles at Amazon, with its CEO Andy Jassy recently stating many positions will become redundant due to advancements in generative AI.
However, Jassy did note that new STEM-related roles could be created, marking a shift rather than a total wipeout.
Dario Amodei, CEO of AI giant Anthropic, also predicted that around half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be at risk, leading to unemployment rates 10-20% higher within five years.
Micha Kaufman, CEO of Fiverr, which has its eyes on the freelancer community, suggested that programmers, designers and lawyers could be at risk, while JPMorgan Chase expects headcount to drop by about 10% due to AI adoption.
Then, there are the companies that have halted hiring efforts altogether. It is believed that Apple’s hiring freeze continues since it was first revealed in 2022, with Spotify CEO Tobi Lütke pausing recruitment to assess whether AI can do the job first.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though, with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI’s COO, Brad Lightcap, saying there’s been little evidence so far of widespread entry-level job loss from AI. Lightcap believes the impact will be slower and more limited than some of the above views, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calling them “overly alarmist.”
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