Carla Javier

And the result is hyperinflation.

And that's why the stakes are so high.

As they say, with great power comes great responsibility, but also comes great political risks.

Every time Molly Kinder at the Brookings Institution hears a company attribute layoffs to AI, she's skeptical.

Our best labor market data show that we're really actually not seeing much of an impact yet on the labor force.

There's no real proof that the much-talked-about, much-feared AI apocalypse is here.

It's certainly true that some companies have to invest a lot of capital in the infrastructure behind AI, which has in some cases forced them to cut costs in other areas.

That's not the same thing as AI being good enough to take people's jobs, though.

But Sarah Myers-West at the AI Now Institute says pinning layoffs on AI sounds good to investors.

I think it's a way for companies to look like they're being really innovative while sort of stepping back over investment or they need to trim their books or there might be a variety of other reasons why they need to make layoffs.

None of those reasons seem quite as positive as AI.

Lawrence Schmidt at MIT's Sloan School of Management says there are some jobs AI can do.

In the short term, Molly Kinder at Brookings says we are probably overestimating how many jobs are vulnerable to AI.

But we're probably underestimating how transformative it will be in the medium to long term.

When I look out five to 10 years, I think we're going to be seeing a lot more impact on jobs.

And she says we need to be doing more to prepare.

I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.

It's great to be back.

Well, so as I'm an economist, I have two hands.

And so there's at least two perspectives on this.