The long-term impact of artificial intelligence has become one of Silicon Valley’s most fiercely debated subjects. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts that every job will be transformed—potentially paving the way for a 4-day workweek. Other tech leaders go even further: Bill Gates suggests humans may soon not be needed “for most things,” while Elon Musk believes most people won’t have to work at all in “less than 20 years.”
Those forecasts may sound extreme, but they’re not just possible—they’re probable, according to Geoffrey Hinton, the British computer scientist often dubbed the “Godfather of AI.” He warned that the transition could trigger a major economic shake-up that leaves millions of workers on the sidelines.
“It seems very likely to a large number of people that we will get massive unemployment caused by AI,” Hinton said during a recent conversation with Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at Georgetown University.
“And if you ask where are these guys going to get the roughly trillion dollars they’re investing in data centers and chips… one of the main sources of money is going to be by selling people AI that will do the work of workers much cheaper. And so these guys are really betting on AI replacing a lot of workers.”
Hinton has become increasingly outspoken about what he views as Big Tech’s distorted incentives. The industry, he recently told Fortune, is motivated less by scientific advancement and more by short-term profits—driving a race to swap out human employees for cheaper AI tools.
His warnings arrive as the economics of AI attract growing scrutiny. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is not expected to be profitable until at least 2030 and may require more than $207 billion to sustain its expansion, according to estimates from HSBC.
A future shaped by AI—and uncertainty
Hinton’s evolution from AI pioneer to vocal critic highlights the enormous stakes of the technology he helped bring to life. After leaving Google in 2023 to speak more freely about AI’s dangers, he has emerged as one of its most prominent skeptics. Last year, his groundbreaking work in machine learning earned him the Nobel Prize.
He acknowledged that AI will generate new kinds of jobs, as many tech executives often argue. But he said he does not believe the number of roles created will match the number wiped out. Even so, he stressed that all projections—his included—should be treated with caution.
“Trying to predict the future of it is going to be very difficult,” he told Sanders. “It’s a bit like when you drive in fog. You can see clearly for 100 yards and at 200 yards you can see nothing. Well, we can see clearly for a year or two, but 10 years out, we have no idea what’s going to happen.”
What is clear, however, is that AI’s momentum is not slowing down. Analysts say workers who learn to adapt—and use AI to enhance their own capabilities—are likely to be in the strongest position as the labor market shifts.
Bernie Sanders: 100 million U.S. jobs could be displaced
Sanders has tried to put numbers to that looming disruption. In a report released in October—drawing in part on estimates generated by ChatGPT—he warned that nearly 100 million jobs in the United States could be displaced by automation. Employees in fast food, customer service, and manual labor are among those most exposed, but white-collar professionals in fields like accounting, software development, and nursing could also face sharp reductions.
“It’s not just economics,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed for Fox News. “Work, whether being a janitor or a brain surgeon, is an integral part of being human. The vast majority of people want to be productive members of society and contribute to their communities. What happens when that vital aspect of human existence is removed from our lives?”
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has issued similar warnings, cautioning that young people may bear the brunt of the disruption. He has suggested that unemployment among recent college graduates could spike to as high as 25% within the next two to three years.
“Let’s look at the fact we never did anything on social media,” Warner told CNBC. “If we make that same response on AI and don’t put guardrails, I think we will come to rue that day.”
