Experts Split on Whether AI Will Replace or Empower Workers
Andrew Ng calls fears “overblown,” Demis Hassabis emphasizes productivity gains and redeployment, while Mustafa Suleyman warns many white-collar roles could vanish soon.
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Ever since artificial intelligence entered the mainstream, it has carried a familiar fear: that machines may not only change work, but replace workers altogether. AI top voices have previously spoken actively about the impact the technology can have on jobs, arguing both for and against large-scale displacement.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) projects AI and automation to affect over 1.1 billion jobs globally, displacing 92 million roles while simultaneously creating 170 million new ones by 2030.
With recent layoffs announced by Meta, Oracle, and Standard Chartered, the debate is back in the spotlight.
1. Andrew Ng’s No AI Jobpocalypse Assurance
Andrew Ng’s LinkedIn post deemed the conversation around AI-driven job loss “stoking unnecessary fear.” The British-American computer scientist and technology entrepreneur (also the mind behind Google Brain) felt that, like any other technology, AI is bound to affect jobs, but sharing “overblown stories of large-scale unemployment is irresponsible and damaging.”
Asking “Why is the AI jobpocalypse narrative so popular?” Ng shared that AI labs can be strong storytellers, making AI technology sound more powerful and promoting science-fiction scenarios of AI “taking over” and causing human extinction.
Supporting WEF’s prediction, he said, “Contrary to the predictions of an AI jobpocalypse, I predict that there will be an AI jobapalooza! AI will lead to a lot more good AI engineering jobs, and I’m optimistic about the future of the overall job market.”
2. Demis Hassabis Has a Message for Layoff Concerns
Demis Hassabis has pushed back against the growing trend of AI-related layoffs. At Google’s I/O event earlier this week, the DeepMind CEO unveiled Gemini 3.5 Flash, capable of handling more complex coding tasks. However, he clarified that this didn’t equate to a reduction in coders. “I have no idea why people are going around talking with certainty about that,” he said.
Hassabis insists that productivity remains the key. “If engineers are becoming three or four times more productive, then we just [want to] do three or four times more stuff.”
He notes that as AI gets better at coding, engineers can be put to work on new projects. “I have a million ideas, from lab drug discovery to game design. I’d love to have some free engineers to go and do those kinds of things,” he added.
Addressing the outcry around AI layoffs, he thinks “it’s a lack of imagination—and a lack of understanding of what’s really going to happen.”
3. Mustafa Suleyman’s White-collar Job Vanishing Claim
The Microsoft AI chief predicts that most white-collar jobs could vanish within the next 12 to 18 months. Identifying fields such as accounting, legal work, marketing, and project management susceptible to being replaced or automated by AI, he predicts AI will achieve “human-level performance on most, if not all, professional tasks.”
Talking to the Financial Times, he said that tasks involving “sitting down at a computer” will be fully automated by AI within the coming months.
Earlier this year, Suleyman predicted that in about five years, everyone will have an AI companion that knows them on a deeper level. “It will see what you see, hear what you hear, and understand your context, your preferences, and your motivations, and it will feel like an ever-present aid or friend that is there to help you navigate life’s big challenges,” Suleyman said.
