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A growing chorus of experts says AI's impact on jobs can no longer be ignored.
More than 200 prominent economists, researchers, and technology executives have signed a statement warning that increasingly capable AI could disrupt employment on a scale that demands government action, The New York Times reported. The signatories include Nobel Prize-winning economists and leaders associated with Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other major technology companies.
“A.I. may become radically more powerful over the next 10 years,” the researchers wrote in a statement. They noted that the technology could lead to “large-scale job displacement” while also indicating that it could create positive opportunities, such as major gains in living standards.
The statement does not predict that mass unemployment is inevitable. Instead, it argues that policymakers should establish safeguards now to reduce the risk of large-scale job displacement as AI systems become more capable.
Economists and AI leaders call for safeguards
The 88-word statement, titled “We Must Act Now,” was organized by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, according to The New York Times. It warns that AI could become radically more powerful over the next decade and calls for guardrails designed to reduce the risk of large-scale displacement.
Signatories include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Google AI leader Jeff Dean, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, and OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar. Economists Joseph Stiglitz, Daron Acemoglu, and Simon Johnson also signed the statement.
The coalition is notable for bringing together researchers who study AI’s economic effects and executives at companies developing the technology.
However, their participation does not amount to a universal consensus. Economists and technology leaders continue to disagree about how quickly AI will affect employment, which workers face the greatest exposure, and whether the technology will ultimately eliminate more jobs than it creates.
The statement also leaves several questions unanswered. It does not estimate how many positions could disappear, identify the occupations most likely to be affected, or provide a timetable for when the most serious disruption may occur.
Evidence of widespread AI-driven unemployment remains limited. Generative AI has automated parts of coding, writing, research, customer support, and administrative work, but its broader effect on employment is still developing.
Research from Harvard Business School, INSEAD, and the University of Toronto found that venture-backed startups were hiring fewer entry-level workers while recruiting more experienced employees, a pattern the researchers associated with smaller, AI-assisted teams.
The findings do not establish that the same pattern is occurring across the broader economy, but they offer an early signal of how AI could influence hiring decisions in some businesses.
What the warning could mean for workers
For many employees, the earliest effects of AI may not involve an entire job disappearing at once.
Companies could instead automate individual tasks, revise job descriptions, slow hiring for certain positions, or expect teams to produce more with the assistance of AI tools. These are possible outcomes rather than conclusions established by the statement.
Entry-level roles may be particularly important to monitor because they often include routine assignments that help workers gain experience. If businesses automate more of that work, some employers could hire fewer junior employees or change the skills they expect from new hires.
Experienced workers may also see their responsibilities shift. AI tools can already draft documents, summarize meetings, generate code, review data, and answer customer questions. As those systems improve, organizations will need to decide which tasks can be accelerated and which still require human judgment.
That does not necessarily mean workers will be replaced. In many organizations, AI may function primarily as a productivity tool that changes how jobs are performed.
What businesses should prepare for
For IT and business leaders, the warning suggests that AI planning should involve more than purchasing software.
Organizations may need policies to review AI-generated work, protect sensitive information, assess productivity claims, and identify roles that could change as adoption expands.
Training may become equally important. Employees who can verify AI outputs, recognize errors, manage confidential data, apply professional judgment, and incorporate automated tools into larger workflows may be better positioned as the technology matures.
The statement does not resolve whether AI will ultimately create more jobs than it eliminates. It does, however, add urgency to the question facing employers and policymakers: whether to build safeguards before widespread disruption occurs or respond after the labor market has already begun to change.
Also read: The warning also adds to a growing debate among technology leaders, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently arguing that AI will create more jobs than it eliminates despite mounting concerns about automation.