Abstract
Advances in AI models have sparked fears that rapid disruption of labor markets is imminent, if not already underway. A steady drumbeat of media articles has forecast a grim future for white-collar work due to AI. Fears of an “AI jobs apocalypse” are often amplified by AI leaders themselves. For example, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has predicted that AI could wipe out half of white-collar jobs and push unemployment to 20 percent. A labor market upheaval of this magnitude would cause enormous suffering for many households and pose a significant challenge for policymakers. While the public has been debating AI’s potential impact on firms and their workers, research and data have been catching up. Our goal in this brief is to synthesize the fast-growing body of research on AI’s impact for policymakers and others eager to understand how AI is affecting the labor market right now.