The “Godfather of AI” says that some fields are safer than others when it comes to being replaced by AI.

Geoffrey Hinton, 78, is frequently called the Godfather of AI because of his groundbreaking work on neural networks, initiated in the late 1970s. In 2024, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to machine learning and is presently 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 remarked. The term “mundane intellectual labor” refers to white-collar jobs. He indicated that this replacement would involve “a person and an AI assistant” performing tasks that once required “ten people.”

Hinton provided an example, mentioning paralegals as being at risk of job loss due to AI, and expressed that he would be “terrified” to work in a call center today because of automation’s potential. However, he noted that the replacement of blue-collar jobs by AI would take a significantly longer time.

“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.