The debate over whether AI will replace jobs or create new ones is heating up. Here's what leaders are saying. (www.businessinsider.com)

AI leaders are sharply split over whether advanced AI will decimate jobs or create new economic opportunities. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns of up to 50% displacement of entry-level white‑collar roles within five years, a view echoed in severity by some (Ford’s Jim Farley, Geoffrey Hinton) and rejected or softened by others. Elon Musk calls the shift a “supersonic tsunami” that will replace many digital desk jobs but could yield abundant wealth; Jensen Huang and Yann LeCun argue AI will more often augment workers or enable new hires for firms that adopt it first. Executives from OpenAI, Microsoft, Amazon and others (Sam Altman, Mustafa Suleyman, Andy Jassy) emphasize that generative models and autonomous agents are already acting like junior employees, automating coding, customer support and knowledge work, while humanoid robotics remains a future inflection point. The debate matters because it frames policy and business responses: timelines vary (predictions range from a decade to many decades), but consensus points to significant task automation, temporary displacement, and the need for retraining, income support and new venture creation. Technically, the key mechanisms are large generative models and AI agents that compose tasks and replace cognitive labor, contrasted with robotics for physical manipulation which lags. The crux is whether AI primarily substitutes human tasks or amplifies human productivity—an outcome that will determine labor markets, education priorities, and social-safety net reforms.