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The Jobs Question

2 min

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The Prediction (1970s)

ATMs will eliminate bank tellers completely.

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Tap reveal to see the transformation

Every major technology shift has triggered the same fear: mass unemployment. When ATMs appeared in the 1970s, experts predicted the end of bank tellers. Instead, teller employment actually grew, cheaper branches meant more branches, and tellers shifted from counting cash to relationship banking. Today, AI headlines swing between extremes: "AI will eliminate 300 million jobs" and "AI will create unprecedented prosperity." The reality, as usual, is more nuanced. Some jobs are being automated, but many more are being transformed. Radiologists are not being replaced by AI, they are using AI to catch cancers they would have missed. Lawyers are not obsolete, they are using AI to review documents in hours instead of weeks. The question is not whether AI will change work, but who benefits from that change and who gets left behind.

Headlines say AI will take all jobs. The data tells a different story.

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