Asam is one of many businesses executives who've been startlingly candid about their intentions to displace human labor with AI tools or agents. From their point of view, you can directly replace your overpaid, calling-in-sick grunts with ever-dependable AI agents. Or you can whittle your workforce down to a skeleton crew that are super efficient thanks to the magical abilities of AI.
Two decades ago, I took my liberal arts degree(s) and got an entry-level job at a solid healthcare company and have moved up to the point where I think I've reached my max potential. I am punching above my weight in my current role. I believe that AI will kill my role in the next 12 months, and I do not believe my age and skillset will make me competitive in today's job market.
In today's episode, our host Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED's senior politics editor Leah Feiger to run through five of this week's best stories-from how AI is eliminating entry level jobs to why a secretive Democrat group is funding high-profile influencers. Then, Zoë and Leah dive into the scoop that AI researchers recently recruited to Meta Superintelligence Labs are already leaving-with some heading back to OpenAI.
In a paper released Tuesday, Brynjolfsson and two other Stanford researchers gave the AI and work discourse some much-needed clarity. Using a massive and recent trove of data, they showed that 22- to 25-year-olds in fields that are particularly exposed to AI are, indeed, having a harder time getting work than their older or less exposed counterparts. The paper dubs this cohort the "canaries in the coal mine" - potential harbingers of larger impacts if AI tools continue to improve.
My belief is it is 100% crap. The best at any job will remain. The best software developer, the one that really knows architecture, knows technology, and so on will stay—for a while.
"Artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the US," Farley said. That's why, he said, more people are looking to the skilled trades.
