Microsoft’s CEO Has a Message: Don’t Let AI Eat the Economy
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What defines the economy in the current year?
If there's one thing that's defined the economy this year, it's this.
AI increasingly doing work that used to be done by humans.
You might just call it the year of the AI layoff. Somewhere between 30 and 50% of his company's workload is now being handled by AI.
Employees knew it was coming, but they didn't know who was going to be laid off this morning. They got the email, 8,000 of them.
Bots instead of people.
And for a long time, the messages coming from AI leaders have felt kind of dark. I think people are right to be anxious. I understand it. That's Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of OpenAI.
This is not even a technological shift that happens every generation. This is one of the big ones. It's hard to imagine that there won't be some significant job impact there.
And that's Dario Amadei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic.
How is AI impacting job security and workforce dynamics?
And my worry is that it'll be broad and it'll be faster than what we've seen with previous technology.
Dario Amadei predicted, you know, a while ago that like half of all entry-level jobs could be affected by 2030, you know. And that's like a massive, tectonic, very difficult thing to swallow for a lot of people.
That's our colleague Brad Olson, a tech editor in San Francisco.
Like, wow, if I have a kid who starts in college, which I do, I have a son who's starting college. it means that his potential opportunity will be severely limited by AI.
Altman and Amadei have since walked back these ominous predictions. And Altman is now saying that a jobs apocalypse is unlikely. But one powerful tech CEO still thinks there's a problem and says the industry needs to figure out a path forward that is more beneficial to everyone, not just the biggest AI companies. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, posted an essay on X a few weeks ago. It reads a little like a manifesto. He wrote, quote, there is no societal permission for an AI future that hollows out entire industries. How would you describe Nadella's post?
When I read it, I was like, oh, this is kind of a big thing here. Microsoft is kind of taking on OpenAI and Anthropic directly here.
What are the implications of AI layoffs as predicted by tech leaders?
They're sort of endorsing a view of the future in which OpenAI and Anthropic are less dominant.
I mean, Microsoft has been a big player in AI. Yes. But now he's kind of calling people out in the industry.
Absolutely. Very directly calling them out. When I read it, I thought, this is kind of a declaration of war.
Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Ryan Knudson. It's Wednesday, July 1st. Coming up on the show, did Microsoft's CEO just declare war on big AI?
Satya Nadella has been intimately involved in developing the AI industry for years. Microsoft was an early investor in open AI. And right now, it holds a more than 25% stake in the company. So Nadella's essay criticizing the industry raised eyebrows. To better understand what Nadella was thinking when he wrote it, our colleague Brad got on a video call with him.
Great to see you too. I didn't expect you to be standing. He was standing up. There was a shelf behind him that looked like it had pictures of his family on it. I asked if it was real or if it was fake. Not an AI background. Is that a background or is that the real office? Because I have an AI background because I never want any bosses to know if I'm in the office or not. Right. So I just made a little joke to him, and then he was like, no, it's real.
It's real. It's sort of a joke, right? Yeah, it's sort of a real thing.
No, he wasn't playing along.
What is Satya Nadella's perspective on the future of AI?
He doesn't understand the game that people play with their bosses down here on the lower levels of corporate America.
Exactly.
Nadella told Brad that the way AI executives have been talking about their technology is irresponsible.
You can't go in and say, hey, look, this is about everybody living on UBI, and there's no dignity of labor, and there's no human agency, and then there's just a few great falls. I mean, I just don't see how that can be the outcome.
I think Satya is saying that's a worst-case scenario. because everyone's job that isn't at an AI company would be affected.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What defines the economy in the current year?
0:05–1:00
2
How is AI impacting job security and workforce dynamics?
1:00–2:30
3
What are the implications of AI layoffs as predicted by tech leaders?
2:30–4:23
4
What is Satya Nadella's perspective on the future of AI?
4:23–8:46
5
How does Nadella's essay criticize the AI industry's direction?
8:46–11:56
6
What are the potential consequences of AI dominance by a few companies?
11:56–17:58
7
How does Microsoft plan to adapt to the evolving AI landscape?
17:58–18:44