MIT economist says AI can do only 5% of jobs and crash may lie ahead [Video]

Daron Acemoglu wants to make clear right away that he has nothing against artificial intelligence. He gets the potential. “I’m not an AI pessimist,” he declares seconds into an interview.

What makes Acemoglu, a renowned professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, come off as a doomsayer locked in on the mounting economic and financial perils ahead, is the unrelenting hype around the technology and the way it’s fueling an investment boom and furious tech stock rally.

As promising as AI may be, there’s little chance it will live up to that hype, Acemoglu says. By his calculation, only a small percent of all jobs – a mere 5% – is ripe to be taken over, or at least heavily aided, by AI over the next decade. Good news for workers, true, but very bad for the companies sinking billions into the technology expecting it to drive a surge in productivity.

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