There is no shortage of hype around AI coming for jobs, and while the U.S. labor market has begun to sputter, hard evidence of AI-related job losses is scarce.

There is no shortage of hype around AI coming for jobs, and while the U.S. labor market has begun to sputter, hard evidence of AI-related job losses is scarce.

Geoffrey Hinton’s message on a recent podcast about artificial intelligence was simple: “Train to be a plumber.”

Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist often called “the Godfather of AI,” said in June what people have now been saying for years: Jobs that include manual labor and expertise are the least vulnerable to modern technology than some other career paths, many of which have generally been considered more respected and more lucrative.

“I think plumbers are less at risk,” Hinton said. “Someone like a legal assistant, a paralegal, they’re not going to be needed for very long.”

  • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
    22·
    4 days ago

    You used an incorrect phrase there, let me fix it: “hard evidence of AI-related job losses is scarcely reported.”

    You are welcome. :)

      • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
        22·
        4 days ago

        Don’t even care enough to do some basic research yourself? Lazy thinking is one reason we are in the huge clusterfuck we are experiencing as a society.

        https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-jobs-layoffs-us-2025/ In case you can’t motivate to click the link, here’s the money shot:

        For the first seven months of 2025, rising adoption of generative AI technology by private employers accounted for more than 10,000 job cuts, according to a report released this week by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The outplacement firm lists AI as one of the top five factors contributing to job losses in 2025.

        If you think that’s a fluke,

        https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/20/in-job-losses-ais-role-may-be-bigger-than-companies-say.html

        And if you are one of those guys who considers these to be “woke” fake news sources, how about Forbes?

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardnieva/2025/07/17/ai-tech-layoffs/

        AP: https://apnews.com/article/ai-layoffs-tech-industry-jobs-ece82b0babb84bf11497dca2dae952b5

        A new report Wednesday from career website Indeed says tech job postings in July were down 36% from their early 2020 levels, with AI one but not the most obvious factor in stalling a rebound.

        ChatGPT’s debut in late 2022 also corresponded with the end of a pandemic-era hiring binge, making it hard to isolate AI’s role in the hiring doldrums that followed.

        Fortune: https://fortune.com/2025/08/08/ai-layoffs-jobs-market-shrinks-entry-level/

        Note that these are all very recent, but the data they reference goes back to the debut of ChatGPT.

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zipEnglish
          4·
          4 days ago

          2022 was the year a Trump tax law took delayed effect that hugely impacted the cost of software developers and similar IT roles — we are no longer R&D investment for tax purposes. You’re right that it’s impossible to disentangle AI numbers from that. You’re right that executive hype can hurt jobs even if the reality is they are shooting themselves in the foot.

          But the real deal is they are going to quickly find the most they can reduce headcount is 5-10% and most individual teams don’t get enough of a boost to cut even one team member, so even those numbers are (IMO) unlikely to be realized.