Geoffrey Hinton, the man widely hailed as the "Godfather of AI", has issued a warning about the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence. Speaking on the podcast 'Diary of a CEO', the 78-year-old pioneer of neural networks said AI could lead to sweeping job losses, especially in white-collar professions.
"I think for mundane intellectual labour, AI is just going to replace everybody," Hinton said, referring to roles such as paralegals and call centre workers. "You’d have to be very skilled to have a job that it [AI] just couldn’t do."
A professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Toronto, Hinton received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his decades-long contribution to machine learning. He previously worked at Google and played a central role in developing the very systems now threatening to disrupt the global labour market.
He warned that while some jobs might still involve human workers, those roles would likely be shared with AI assistants, dramatically reducing workforce numbers. "That means one person will do what used to be the work of ten people," he said.
In a clear message to those entering the workforce, Hinton said he would be "terrified" to work in a call centre today and cited paralegals as another profession on the chopping block. However, he drew a line between intellectual and physical work, suggesting the latter might remain safer from automation, at least for now.
"I’d say it’s going to be a long time before [AI] is as good at physical manipulation," he said. "So, a good bet would be to be a plumber."
Hinton also pushed back against the idea that AI will simply create new types of employment to replace what it eliminates. If artificial intelligence automates most mental tasks, he asked, "then what is there for people to do?"
His concerns echo recent trends in the job market. A May 2025 report by venture capital firm SignalFire found that new graduate hiring at companies like Meta and Google fell by 25% between 2023 and 2024. Just 7% of their hires last year were fresh graduates—down from nearly 10% the year before—largely due to AI systems taking over entry-level tasks.
The impact is spreading beyond tech. Earlier this year, Morgan Stanley laid off 2,000 employees, with reports suggesting that some positions had been automated. A January forecast from Bloomberg Intelligence predicted up to 200,000 job cuts across major banks—including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup—over the next five years, citing AI as a driving factor.
Still, Hinton noted that a few sectors, such as healthcare, might remain more resilient due to their ever-growing demand. But, he added, "most jobs, I think, are not like that." While some governments have floated the idea of universal basic income (UBI) to soften the economic blow, Hinton warned of a deeper cost: loss of purpose. "Even if you have UBI, people want to do something," he said.