- Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg predicts abundant future jobs despite AI-driven company downsizing
- Zuckerberg argues small companies with AI agents will have larger economic impacts
- He criticizes fears of AI as dangerous and concentration of power as problematic
Amid fears that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools will lead to the elimination of human labour, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has claimed that there will be an abundance of jobs in the future, even if companies downsize. Zuckerberg made the prediction in a 6,500-word manifesto titled, The Future is for Everyone: The Path to a Positive AI Future, which was published on the company website on Monday (Aug 10).
“I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future,” Zuckerberg wrote.
The billionaire said the belief that AI is dangerous and that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power was an inherently problematic notion.
“Company sizes may shrink, just as they did in the transition from industrial giants to tech companies. But this doesn't mean fewer jobs overall," he added.
The Facebook co-founder said he expected a small number of people to run companies with the help of superintelligent AI agents.
"I expect we will start seeing small numbers of people with personal superintelligence agents able to run companies at significant scale. In the future, small businesses will continue to be the backbone of the economy, but each small business will be able to have a much larger impact."
Zuckerberg's prediction comes at a time when his fellow tech CEOs, including Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman, have warned of an impending job apocalypse.
Amodei has repeatedly stated that AI could wipe out half of the entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. The Anthropic boss believes that repetitive-but-variable tasks in law firms, consulting, administration, and finance could be eliminated soon, with CEOs looking to use AI to cut costs.
"Specifically, if we look at jobs like entry-level white, you know, I think of people who work at law firms, like first-year associates, there's a lot of document review. It's very repetitive, but every example is different. That's something that AI is quite good at," Amodei said.
"I think, to be honest, a large fraction of them would like to be able to use it to cut costs to employ less people," he added.
