The AI Jobs Apocalypse Probably Isn't Coming Anytime Soon
Despite bold predictions from Anthropic and OpenAI leaders about mass unemployment, new data shows no systematic job losses yet. Productivity gains lag behind the IT boom of the 1990s, and the 'O-ring argument' suggests AI might actually increase the value of human labor. While insiders remain optimistic, economic realities like soaring energy costs and persistent AI errors challenge the feasibility of a total automation future.
Not everything is a computational problem.
- Gualdrapo
All I know is that trying to get a job now is being way more brutal than before. The closest thing I got this month was a scam email from an alleged "independent global senior recruiter" "currently supporting a confidential search for a company developing AI-powered digital products". The made-with-ai smell was all over the place, the company in mention allegedly was adobe, and am pretty sure they got my email from the "who wants to be hired?" posts in here.
- rybosworld
Agentic coding only became reasonably decent this past December. Even in tech, most organizations that have adopted the tools are still trying to understand how capable they are and how to use them.
Point is it's too early to declare what the effect will be. It can take years for large organizations to change the way of doing things. The only sure-fire way to speed that up is if they suddenly start losing market-share. Otherwise, it's all herd-following and complacency in the majority of companies.
- mono442
It still doesn't seem to work all that well for tasks which don't have a short feedback loop.
- robotswantdata
Don’t expect The Guardian to report on AI taking jobs. Their audience wants to believe AI is failing and could never match their superior intellects.
Newsflash: AI is already remarkably good at replacing the exact office and civil service paper-pushing they do every day.
- tysilva
At the same time, we seem to be making rapid progress year over year in capability. Competition is keeping things progressing forward at an interesting pace.
It will be interesting to see what we are actually capable of 5 years from now... 10 years... There is almost definitely some job functions that are at risk and just don't know it, or haven't felt it yet.