Sen. Bernie Sanders is warning that the spread of artificial intelligence and automation in American industry could wipe out nearly 100 million jobs over the next decade.
Sanders is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and directed staff to examine how so-called artificial labor could impact workers.
Their , released Monday, found that job displacement could hit millions in the food service, retail, office, health care, transportation sectors and more.
Based on modeling using ChatGPT, the committee found 89% of fast food and counter workers, 64% of accountants, and 47% of truck drivers could lose their jobs.
And the report said big companies are already looking for ways to cut payrolls in favor of artificial labor.
The report noted, for example, that Anthropic’s CEO warned that could be lost to AI.
And that AI-powered efficiency gains will allow the company to reduce its corporate workforce.
Elon Musk even said last year that he envisioned a future where “AI and robotics will provide any goods and services that you want” and that human jobs would be .
Sanders said he was putting out the report, along with an , because he wanted to ensure AI development benefits everyday Americans, not just the wealthy.
“Working people built this country,” Sanders said in a news release. “They deserve to benefit from new technology, not be thrown out on the street while billionaires get even richer. We must stand up to the greed of Big Tech and make sure the future of artificial intelligence is a future that works for all of us — not just the people on top.”
Sanders offered some policy proposals he said would protect working Americans in the age of AI, including shorter workweeks without pay loss, employee representatives on corporate boards, boosting union membership, and a “robot tax” on companies that replace humans with machines.
Prediction reactions
“Projections like these have tended not to play out,” said , a senior fellow at Brookings Metro who researches AI and the digital economy.
Muro applauded Sanders and his staff for putting out a report that highlights that the “scale of potential disruption is large.”
But Muro said there are “lots of ways that could come up short.”
And he said widespread impacts from AI don’t necessarily mean widespread job losses.
“I do think that this is extremely powerful technology that will affect many, many occupations and many, many workers,” Muro said. “But I also think that it may happen a bit more slowly than is expected. And … these impacts are not always jobs replaced. … They might be augmented, but they also may be jobs disrupted.”
Workers might not find themselves on the unemployment line, but they might be asked by their bosses to do different tasks due to AI.
, an economic researcher at the University of Missouri, also voiced skepticism that the dire scenario of nearly 100 million lost jobs would come to pass.
Spell, who has decades of experience with workforce analysis, agreed that AI could augment a lot of jobs rather than replace them.
For example, the Sanders report said up to 40% of registered nurses could be replaced by AI.
“When I started looking at occupational projections over 25 years ago, we had a shortage of nurses. And move ahead to this year, and we still have a shortage of nurses,” Spell said.
Nurses use different technological tools now than they did 25 years ago, but they’re still in demand, he said.
AI anxiety
Workers are anxious about AI.
LinkedIn said a recent survey found that 41% of professionals report with how quickly they’re expected to “get” AI.
A recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that half of Americans are about the increased use of AI in daily life.
And most people in the Pew Research Center survey said they expect AI to worsen their ability to think creatively or form meaningful relationships.
Another Pew Research Center report found that just over half of workers are . And around a third of workers expect AI will reduce job opportunities.
A recent Gallup report found that AI use at work has in the last couple of years. But regular AI usage at work is still fairly low.
Just 19% used AI at least a few times a week, and just 8% used it daily.
But Gallup also found that most people expect AI to have a , even more than the computer, internet or telephones.
Analysis from Goldman Sachs economists estimated that AI might not lead to widespread job losses some fear. The Goldman Sachs researchers developed a baseline assumption that if AI is widely adopted, though they said displacement rates could vary from 3% to 14% under different assumptions.
Andrew Seaman, the editor-at-large for Jobs & Career Development at LinkedIn News, that the knee-jerk reaction might be for people to think they should abandon careers heavily impacted by AI.
But he said smart companies are using AI to free up workers for more human-centric tasks.
Muro and his colleagues published research a year ago that found more than 30% of all workers could see at least 50% of their occupation’s tasks .
Spell’s has found that under 10% of firms are already using AI at some level in their production process.
Spell said there could be a turning point where AI adoption speeds up, but past examples have shown that big technological shifts in the labor force can take a generation.
Spell said the consumer-driven U.S. economy would take a massive hit if tens of millions of workers lost their incomes because of AI.
But he said he’s “bullish” on AI’s ability to boost production to counter slowing population growth.
SEE MORE:
The hollowed-out industrial towns in the heartland and South offer a cautionary tale for an ill-prepared country or workforce, Muro said.
“By every indication, AI may bring equally challenging impacts,” he said.
Both Muro and Spell brought up the importance of retraining workers displaced by AI. Muro said it should be seen as a vital investment for society.
And Spell said mid-career folks who have families and roots in a community may need extra help landing on their feet if they lose their jobs to AI.