TechFlow News, May 26: David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, published a commentary in The New York Times arguing that fears of an “employment apocalypse and mass unemployment” triggered by AI are overblown. Solomon contends that AI will not eliminate jobs on a catastrophic scale; instead, it will boost worker productivity, enabling employees to shift toward higher-value tasks and creating new roles centered on the management, implementation, validation, and regulation of AI systems. He acknowledges, however, that labor markets will face disruption—yet points out that the U.S. economy has repeatedly absorbed similar technological shocks in the past, consistently maintaining rising overall employment and living standards.
AI is likely to follow the trajectory of previous technological transformations—displacing some jobs while expanding others. For instance, this year alone, hyperscale cloud service providers’ planned $700 billion in capital expenditures has already spurred a sharp increase in construction-sector jobs. Citing forecasts from Goldman Sachs economists, Solomon notes that AI could automate 25% of current working hours over the next decade, with white-collar sectors—including banking, law, accounting, software development, and customer service—facing the greatest impact. (Jinshi)
