AI's Future: Not as Scary as You Think!

You might have heard that AI is going to take over the job market. But hold on, one economist says we shouldn’t be too worried just yet. Daron Acemoglu thinks only about 5% of jobs will be replaced or heavily helped by AI in the next decade. So, is all this AI hype getting out of hand? Right now, AI isn't reliable enough to replace humans in most jobs. Take white-collar office jobs for instance. AI can do some tasks well but lacks the creativity and subtlety humans bring. In blue-collar sectors like construction, AI hasn’t shown it can handle complex physical work safely or efficiently yet. Even so, big companies are pouring money into developing advanced AI models. This has given a boost to firms like OpenAI, which just got a massive $157 billion funding. But Acemoglu warns that if this keeps up, it could lead to an “AI winter,” where investors lose interest and tech stocks crash. The real issue is companies are already cutting jobs thinking AI will reduce their labor needs. What happens when they find out it’s not true? This could be bad news for workers and the economy. We need to ask: can we really bet everything on a technology that still has so many limits?