AI Could Cause 99% of All Workers to Be Unemployed in the Next Five Years, Says Computer Science Professor Professor Roman Yampolskiy predicted that artificial general intelligence would be developed and used by 2030, leading to mass automation.
By Sherin Shibu Edited by Melissa Malamut
Key Takeaways
- University of Louisville Computer Science Professor Roman Yampolskiy stated on a recent podcast that AI will lead to mass joblessness.
- He predicted artificial general intelligence systems will take over most computer jobs and humanoid robots will take over most physical labor jobs, all within the next five years.
- The remaining roles will be jobs that humans prefer other humans to do for them, Yampolskiy said.
A computer science professor is warning that advanced AI could be developed within the next couple of years, leading to mass unemployment by 2030.
On a recent episode of "The Diary of a CEO" podcast, University of Louisville Computer Science Professor Roman Yampolskiy warned that AI could cause "99%" of all workers to be unemployed by 2030. Yampolskiy said that artificial general intelligence systems (AGI) that are as capable as humans would likely be developed by 2027, leading to a labor market collapse three years later. He predicted that AI would provide "trillions of dollars" of "free labor," giving employers a better option for their employment needs.
"You have free labor, physical and cognitive, trillions of dollars of it," Yampolskiy said. "It makes no sense to hire humans for most jobs if I can just get a $20 subscription or a free model to do what an employee does."
Yampolskiy predicted that any job on a computer would immediately be automated once AGI arrives and that humanoid robots would take over physical labor jobs within the next five years, leading to unprecedented levels of unemployment.
"So we're looking at a world where we have levels of unemployment we've never seen before," Yampolskiy said on the podcast. "Not talking about 10% unemployment, which is scary, but 99%."
The only jobs left will be those that humans prefer another human to do for them, Yampolskiy said. AI will "very quickly" gain the capacity to take over other human occupations, including teachers, analysts, and accountants, he predicted.
Yampolskiy claims to have coined the term "AI safety" in a 2011 article and has since published more than 100 papers on AI's dangers. He has written multiple books, including his 2025 book "Considerations on the AI Endgame: Ethics, Risks and Computational Frameworks."
In the podcast interview, Yampolskiy said that even coding and prompt engineering weren't safe from automation. AI can design prompts for AI "way better" than any human, he stated.
Retraining is also impossible in this new reality because AI will automate all jobs and "there is no plan B," Yampolskiy said.
Yampolskiy's predictions match the forecasts made by other AI experts. Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI" due to his pioneering work in the subject, stated in June that AI is going to "replace everybody" in white collar jobs. He challenged the idea that AI would create new jobs, pointing out that if AI automates tasks, there would be no jobs for people to do.
Meanwhile, in May, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stated that AI would eliminate half of all entry-level, white-collar jobs within the next one to five years, causing unemployment to reach a high of 20%.
