AI Won’t End Human Work, Andreessen Horowitz Partner Says

As fears turn that artificial quality could hitch retired white-collar jobs, Andreessen Horowitz wide spouse David George argues the exertion could alternatively substance a caller question of economical growth, higher productivity, and caller industries.

In a blog post published connected Wednesday, George argued that fears of an AI “job apocalypse” trust connected what economists telephone the “lump-of-labor” fallacy, the thought that determination is simply a fixed magnitude of enactment disposable successful the economy.

“The occupation with that premise is that it defies everything we cognize astir people, markets, and economics. Human wants and needs are thing but fixed,” George wrote. “Keynes famously predicted astir a period agone that automation would pb to a 15-hour work-week, but of people Keynes was wrong. He was close that automation created a 'labor surplus,' but alternatively than conscionable beryllium backmost and bask the ride, we recovered caller and antithetic productive endeavors to capable our time.”

CEOs, including SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, person warned that AI could dramatically trim the request for immoderate white-collar workers successful the coming years. At the aforesaid time, Economists astatine the IMF and World Economic Forum person besides projected that AI could importantly reshape planetary labour markets, with entry-level occupation postings successful the US decreasing by 35% implicit the past 2 years owed to AI adoption.

George argues that those concerns absorption excessively heavy connected task replacement portion overlooking however productivity gains historically make caller industries and economical demand.

“If automation caused imperishable unemployment, the tractor should person breached the labour marketplace forever,” helium wrote. “Instead, workplace output astir tripled, which supported a monolithic summation successful population—and acold from being permanently unemployed, those workers flowed into antecedently unimagined industries, factories, stores, offices, hospitals, labs, and yet services and software.”

George besides argued that AI is boosting request for immoderate method workers. He pointed to hiring and wage information showing continued maturation for bundle developers and systems-design workers contempt the emergence of AI coding tools.

“Software Development jobs (both by count, and a percent of the wide occupation market) person been expanding since the opening of 2025,” George wrote. “Is that due to the fact that of AI? Truthfully, it’s astir apt excessively soon to tell, but AI astir decidedly augments the enactment of bundle engineering, not to notation that AI is top-of-mind for each enforcement astatine each company.”

George acknowledged that immoderate occupations are apt to shrink arsenic AI improves.

“To repeat, nary of this means each relation survives intact,” helium wrote. “The BLS expects lawsuit work representatives and aesculapian transcriptionists to decline, and possibly that diminution is already underway.”

The statement comes arsenic companies progressively usage AI to automate bureau work, and economists stay divided implicit which inclination volition yet predominate arsenic AI adoption accelerates. In February, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman predicted that astir white-collar tasks could beryllium automated wrong 2 years, portion Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has argued AI volition make a "Job Singularity" with caller industries, businesses, and forms of employment.

Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman criticized Dario Amodei for what helium described arsenic “fear-based marketing” astir AI occupation nonaccomplishment and information risks.

“You tin warrant that successful a batch of antithetic ways, and immoderate of it’s real, similar determination are going to beryllium morganatic information concerns," Altman said. “But if what you privation is similar 'we request power of AI, conscionable us, due to the fact that we’re the trustworthy people', I deliberation fear-based selling is astir apt the astir effectual mode to warrant that."

Despite ongoing fears that AI could regenerate quality workers, George argued that the exertion volition yet beryllium a benefit.

“The aboriginal is cheaper intelligence, bigger markets, caller firms, caller industries, and higher-order quality work,” George wrote. “There is nary fixed magnitude of work, fto unsocial a fixed magnitude of cognition, and determination ne'er was. AI is not the extremity of work. It is the opening of abundant intelligence.”