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Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer of Google X, has a stark message for white-collar professionals: artificial intelligence isn’t just coming for entry-level work — it’s coming for everyone, from software developers to CEOs to podcasters.
In a Monday conversation on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast, Gawdat predicted that most knowledge workers will be replaced in the next decade and that many still underestimate just how rapidly this transformation will unfold.
He cited his own startup, Emma.love, which builds emotional and relationship-focused artificial intelligence and is run by just three people.
“That startup would have been 350 developers in the past,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, podcaster is going to be replaced,” he told host Steven Bartlett.
Even elite professionals shouldn’t feel immune. “AGI is going to get better at everything than humans — at everything, including being a CEO,” he said. “The one thing they don’t think of is AI will replace them, too.”
Gawdat, who previously worked for Google X, the tech firm’s research arm, described the present moment as a brief transition phase — the “era of augmented intelligence” — where humans can still work alongside AI.
But that will soon give way to “machine mastery,” where AI systems will perform entire roles, from assistants to architects.
The former Google X executive said he’s not anti-AI. He said he’s actively working to build ethical systems that reflect human values like love and connection.
But he warned that AI is being deployed by people and institutions driven by profit and ego, not ethics.
“Unless you’re in the top 0.1%, you’re a peasant,” Gawdat said. “There is no middle class.”
He predicted a “short-term dystopia” beginning around 2027, driven by mass unemployment, social unrest, and an economic structure that fails to adapt.
Still, he said, a better future, one filled with freedom, creativity, and human connection, is possible.
“We were never made to wake up every morning and just occupy 20 hours of our day with work,” he said. “We defined our purpose as work — that’s a capitalist lie.”
“But the truth is it could be the best world ever,” he said. “The society completely full of laughter and joy. Free healthcare, no jobs, spending more time with their loved ones. A world where all of us are equal.”
In a 2023 episode of the same podcast, Gawdat went even further: AI is “beyond an emergency,” he said.
“It’s the biggest thing we need to do today. It’s bigger than climate change, believe it or not.”
At the time, he called on governments to tax AI-powered businesses at 98% to slow the industry demand and fund the support systems needed for people who will be displaced.
“The likelihood of something incredibly disruptive happening within the next two years that can affect the entire planet is definitely larger with AI than it is with climate change,” Gawdat said.
Microsoft, Nvidia, and Meta push back on doomsday AI predictions
Not everyone shares Gawdat’s apocalyptic forecast for AI.
A July study by Microsoft researchers found that AI chatbots are more useful for assisting with tasks involving research, writing, and communication — not replacing entire jobs.
Other experts remain divided. Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called “Godfather of AI,” has echoed Gawdat’s concern, warning that AI will “replace everybody” doing “mundane intellectual labor.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted half of entry-level white-collar jobs could vanish within five years.
But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang disagreed. He believes AI will reshape how work is done, not eliminate it — calling prompting AI a “highly cognitive skill” and describing AI as “the greatest technology equalizer.”
Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, has also dismissed doomsday predictions, saying he “pretty much disagrees with everything Dario says” and believes humans will remain the “boss” of future AI systems.
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