White House AI Advisor Dismisses Job Loss Fears as Overhyped

White House AI and crypto advisor David Sacks has pushed back against growing concerns that artificial intelligence will lead to large-scale job losses, labeling such fears as “overhyped.” In a recent post on X, Sacks highlighted that while AI is evolving rapidly, it is not designed to replace human workers but to assist in middle-tier tasks, with humans maintaining responsibility for end-to-end processes to ensure real-world value [1].

These remarks follow a Microsoft Research report that identified 40 job roles most likely to be impacted by AI, particularly in sectors such as technology and crypto. The study analyzed 200,000 anonymized Bing Copilot conversations and found that AI tools are primarily used for tasks like writing, advising, teaching, and information gathering. Roles such as reporters, technical writers, and customer service representatives were found to be most vulnerable, with AI applicability scores between 0.38 and 0.39. Positions requiring more analytical skills, like market research analysts and data scientists, showed slightly lower exposure, with scores ranging from 0.35 to 0.36 [1].

The Microsoft findings coincide with broader signs of a slowing job market. The U.S. Department of Labor reported the addition of only 73,000 jobs in July, falling short of the 100,000 estimated by Dow Jones. In the crypto sector, job listings have also declined, with only 38 new roles posted on CryptoJobsList.com and 69 on Remote3.co over the past month [1].

Sacks and other industry figures, including former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, argue that AI is not replacing human labor but evolving job functions. Srinivasan noted that “Today’s AI is not truly agentic because it’s not truly independent of you. AI doesn’t take your job — it lets you do any job.” He added that AI models often replace earlier versions of themselves rather than human roles, as seen with GPT-4 taking over from GPT-3 and Midjourney replacing Stable Diffusion [1].

Both Sacks and Srinivasan emphasize that while AI is reshaping workflows, human oversight remains essential. For the foreseeable future, they argue, AI serves as a tool that enhances rather than eliminates human roles, supporting functions without rendering them obsolete.

Source: [1] White House AI Czar David Sacks Calls Job Loss Fears “Overhyped” (https://thecoinrise.com/white-house-ai-czar-david-sacks-calls-job-loss-fears-overhyped/)