AI Is Going to 'Replace Everybody' in Several Fields, According to the 'Godfather of AI.' Here's Who He Says Should Be 'Terrified.' Geoffrey Hinton, called the "Godfather of AI" due to his pioneering work on AI, says some fields face a heavier risk of replacement due to automation.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- Geoffrey Hinton, 78, is a Nobel Prize winner often called the Godfather of AI because of his early research on neural networks and major discoveries in deep learning.
- Hinton predicts that there are certain jobs that will be completely eliminated soon.
The "Godfather of AI" says that some fields are safer than others when it comes to being replaced by AI.
Geoffrey Hinton, 78, is often referred to as the Godfather of AI due to his pioneering work on neural networks, which began in the late 1970s. He won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on machine learning and is currently a professor emeritus in computer science at the University of Toronto.
In a recent interview on the podcast "Diary of a CEO" that aired on Monday, Hinton said AI has the potential to cause mass joblessness.
"I think for mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody," Hinton said. "Mundane intellectual labor" refers to white-collar jobs. He specified that the replacement would take the form of "a person and an AI assistant" doing the work that "ten people did previously."
Hinton gave one example, noting that paralegals were at risk of losing their jobs to AI, and said that he would be "terrified" to work in a call center right now, due to the potential for automation. However, he pointed out that blue-collar work would take a longer time to be replaced by AI.
"I'd say it's going to be a long time before it [AI] is as good at physical manipulation," Hinton said in the podcast. "So, a good bet would be to be a plumber."
In the interview, Hinton also challenged the notion that AI would create new jobs, stating that if AI automated intellectual tasks, there would be few jobs left for people to do.
"You'd have to be very skilled to have a job that it [AI] just couldn't do," Hinton said.
Geoffrey Hinton. Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile for Collision via Getty Images
AI has the potential to decrease hiring, especially for entry-level jobs. A report released last month from venture capital firm SignalFire found that big tech companies have stopped hiring new graduates for entry-level roles as much as they did in the past, and AI is a significant reason for the decline.
The report found that the percentage of new graduate hires at companies like Meta and Google dropped by 25% from 2023 to 2024, reaching just 7% in 2024.
It's not just the tech industry — Wall Street also shows signs of being impacted by AI. In March, Morgan Stanley announced layoffs of 2,000 employees, intending to replace some with AI. A report released in January from Bloomberg Intelligence showed that AI could cause as many as 200,000 job cuts across 93 major banks, including Citigroup and JPMorgan, within the next five years.
