Economists and tech leaders warn on AI job risks

More than 200 top economists, executives, and researchers have signed a letter warning that AI could cause large-scale job displacement if governments and industry fail to build stronger guardrails. The 88-word-long statement, titled “We Must Act Now,” says AI may become “radically more powerful” over the next 10 years and could transform the economy faster than the Industrial Revolution.

Signatories include former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Google AI lead Jeff Dean, Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark, OpenAI finance boss Sarah Friar, and Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz, Daron Acemoglu, and Simon Johnson. The statement, organized by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, calls for incentives, institutions, and rules that steer AI toward complementing humans and benefiting society.

The warning lands amid continued debate over how quickly AI will reshape work. Generative AI has automated parts of coding, customer service, marketing, and research, but there is little evidence so far of widespread job losses directly caused by the technology. Recent research suggests AI is already changing hiring patterns, with venture-backed startups recruiting fewer entry-level workers and more experienced employees for smaller, AI-assisted teams.

Some economists expect AI’s labor-market effects to develop gradually because adoption remains concentrated among a minority of workers. Others warn disruption could accelerate as systems improve, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has predicted AI could eliminate up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.