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The $100 Trillion Question—What Happens When AI Replaces Every Job?

Plus, OpenAI CEO Believes Humanity Close to Building Artificial Superintelligence 🧠

Author

Steve Brown
June 19, 2025

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This week’s most interesting and relevant AI news and analysis

Remember, you can read past editions of Synthetic here.

This Week in AI 🧠

Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy told employees to be curious about AI and embrace it but warned that automation will lead to efficiency gains that ultimately will lead to a smaller corporate workforce. In a memo to employees, Jassy wrote, "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce." Talking about the role AI agents will play in Amazon’s future, he continued, “Many of these agents have yet to be built, but make no mistake, they’re coming and coming fast.” 🤖

Workday adopted a data-based, pragmatic approach to helping its employees embrace AI across the organization. An internal survey revealed that workers didn’t feel they had the time or the permission to explore new AI tools. Leaders established a digital academy where employees could boost their AI literacy and skills. Each employee was asked to set personal goals for how they would use AI to enhance their work and learn new skills. As a result, 79% of Workday employees now use AI for work. 📈

Quick Hits

Video: The $100 Trillion Question—What Happens When AI Replaces Every Job?

University of Virginia Professor of Economics Anton Korinek specializes in the study of how AGI (human-level intelligence) will shape the future of our economy. He argues that without radical changes, our entire economic system will collapse. You will find this Harvard Business School interview enlightening and alarming. Korinek makes the point that it’s almost impossible to play beyond 2-3 years now and that governments are dangerously unprepared for what’s coming. (17m 30s)

Synthetic’s Take: The issue Korinek begins to address in this video is the central issue of our time that nobody is talking about. As we urged in the last issue of Synthetic, this must be a conversation that involves us all. Whether this takes years or decades, we need to get ready for significant change and we are ill-prepared for a world without human work.

AI Tech and Innovation 💡

Are we close to building Artificial Superintelligence, ASI? Sam Altman thinks so.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman believes humanity could be close to building an artificial superintelligence. In a new blog post, Altman writes, "Robots are not yet walking the streets…yet, we have recently built systems that are smarter than people in many ways.” Altman goes on to say that 2025 is the year of agents, 2026 will likely be the year we see AI systems that can develop novel insights, and 2027 may see the arrival of robots that can do tasks in the real world. He predicts that the 2030s will be “wildly different than any time that has come before.” Buckle up!

The Visual Capitalist charts the top AI models as measured by the Mensa Norway IQ Test Score. The average human IQ ranges from 90 to 110. Above 130 is considered ‘genius’ level. According to Tracking AI, the leading AI model scores an IQ of 135. Who’s the winner? Will it be OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Grok, DeepSeek, or Meta? Click the headline to find out.

AI Insights 🔮

Plumbers may be the last to have their jobs automated, according to the Godfather of AI

AI researcher Geoffrey Hinton is often referred to as one of the ‘godfathers’ of AI. Speaking in a podcast interview, Hinton said, "for mundane intellectual labor, AI is just going to replace everybody.” In particular he called out paralegals and call center workers as being at severe risk of automation. Blue collar work will be the last jobs to be automated, says Hinton, “it’s going to be a long time before [AI] is good at physical manipulation, so a good bet would be to be a plumber.” 🪠

To analyze whether or not you job is at risk of automation, you need to understand the four dimensions where AI can excel over humans: Speed, scale, scope, and sophistication. Looking for bottlenecks in these four areas provides a framework for understanding where AI provides value, and equally where unique human capabilities offer an enduring advantage.

Reid Hoffman is the cofounder of LinkedIn, InflectionAI, and Manas AI. He’s known as a techno optimist and thinker on the future impact of technology. In this opinion piece for The San Francisco Standard, Hoffman advises graduates to embrace AI as a tool to optimize their careers rather than trying to AI-proof them. He encourages people to explore new technologies and build meaningful relationships to thrive in the evolving job market that’s increasingly shaped by AI.

Toolkit for the Future 🛠️

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