Warnings about AI’s impact on jobs are echoing from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to Washington, DC, but Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang thinks you should worry less about robots and more about your coworkers, quietly “tokenmaxing,” or using AI to do in minutes what would take you hours.
Rep. In a recent interview with former national security adviser HR McMaster at the Stanford Graduate School of Business along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Huang said AI won’t exactly replace you. Instead, it’s likely that you’ll be replaced by a worker who increases their productivity using AI.
“It’s unlikely that many people will lose their jobs to AI,” Huang said in an interview published last week. “Most people who use AI are going to lose their jobs. So we have to make sure that everyone uses AI.”
The statement is a break from what other business leaders have warned about the technology. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, said technology will eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleiman has said the same and has given it about 18 months until it becomes a reality.
At the same time, there is growing dissatisfaction among workers with the adoption of AI. KPMG found in November that four in 10 workers fear AI could take over their jobs. And a report by AI Enterprise Platform Writer found that 29% of workers are actively sabotaging their company’s AI strategy, with nearly a third citing a fear of AI.
While other business leaders are adamant that AI will lead to widespread labor market disruption, the 63-year-old billionaire stands by his assertion that the technology will not lead to massive layoffs. In an interview last May, Huang said the technology could actually bring 40 million people back into the workforce. And in March, the CEO mapped out exactly how AI could transform the workplace, predicting 100 AI agents working alongside every human worker.
Huang’s predictions are already playing out in the labor market, the authors report. In the survey, 60% of executives said they are considering laying off employees who refuse to adopt AI. Furthermore, workers who use AI are three times more likely to get a promotion and pay raise in the past year than those who drag their feet on AI adoption.
Still, a recent Anthropic study argues that AI is already capable of performing most tasks associated with white-collar professions, such as law, business, engineering, and management. But Huang explained that while AI will automate specific tasks, it won’t necessarily eliminate occupations.
