Powell says AI may be hurting entry-level jobs: 'Hard to say how big it is' (www.businessinsider.com)

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said AI is likely already affecting the labor market — particularly entry‑level roles for recent college graduates — though he cautioned it’s “hard to say how big it is.” Speaking after the Fed’s September meeting, Powell suggested some employers are able to use AI where they previously hired young workers, and noted that broader job creation has also slowed. His comments add weight to an increasingly public debate about AI-driven displacement that has split industry leaders: Anthropic’s Dario Amodei has warned of massive entry‑level disruption, while others such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman have pushed back. Anecdotal moves by firms including JPMorgan and Klarna to reduce headcount are cited as early evidence. For the AI/ML community, Powell’s remarks matter because they signal high‑level economic and policy attention and underscore practical deployment choices that determine impact. Technically, the concern centers on AI systems automating repetitive cognitive tasks common in entry‑level white‑collar work (document review, basic analysis, customer workflows), not on a single dramatic event — and quantifying that displacement requires better metrics on task automation, adoption rates, and labor reallocation. The takeaway for practitioners: prioritize responsible deployment, focus on augmentation vs. replacement tradeoffs, invest in interpretability and upskilling pathways, and track empirical labor outcomes as models move from pilot to production.