AI guru warns AI could soon take over 80 percent of jobs, replacing surgeons, coders and even CEOs
AI pioneer Stuart Russell has expressed concern over the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the job market. At a time when most tech companies have laid off thousands of employees, Russell believes that AI may one day even replace the CEO.
As we speak, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the world. The fear of jobs being replaced by AI is common. Many big tech companies have already laid off thousands of employees in favor of better AI integration. However, according to AI guru Stuart Russell, no one, including CEOs, is really safe from being replaced by AI.
AI can become a better surgeon than you
In an episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast, Russell raised concerns over the potential disruption AI could bring to the workforce. Stuart Russell said, “AI systems are doing everything we currently call work.”
The AI guru acknowledged that even highly specialized and traditionally protected positions – such as surgeons – may face rapid automation, let alone coders. “You can aspire to anything – you want to be a surgeon – it takes seven seconds for a robot to learn how to be a surgeon better than any human,” he said.
AI may come after CEO jobs
While most of the layoffs so far have affected mid- to lower-level employees, Stuart Russell stressed that, in the long run, executives will also not be safe. He explained, “Pity the poor CEO whose board says, ‘Unless you hand over your decision-making power to an AI system, we’re going to have to fire you because all of our competitors are using AI-powered CEOs and they’re doing much better.'”
The situation looks so serious that Russell believes every government in the world is about to face a major crisis. He claimed that society is now “facing 80% unemployment.”
Stuart Russell isn’t the only one who thinks AI will eventually become a risk to almost everyone in the workplace. Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told the BBC, “I think what a CEO does is probably one of the easier things for an AI to do one day.”
Other prominent voices in the technology field echo and expand on these concerns. While some, like Andrew Yang and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, estimate that millions of roles in the US could be eliminated or replaced, others, including Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Meta’s Yann LeCun, argue that AI will replace work rather than eliminate it. However, Russell’s warnings are the most comprehensive, pointing to a scenario where some businesses are immune.
On the other hand, tech billionaire Elon Musk predicts that AI will become optional for humans to work in the future.
