JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks artificial intelligence will vastly improve people’s lives, predicting 3-and-a-half day work weeks and cures for cancer. But he also said the technology could disrupt the labor market, requiring public-private approaches for retraining workers.
“I believe that 30 years from now… your kids are probably working three and a half days a week. They’ll probably live to 100, and a lot of the diseases that afflicted a lot of us, they won’t get,” he told “CBS Evening News anchor” Tony Dokoupil.
“Life will be better,” Dimon added, touting what he sees as the technology’s potential benefits on everything from medical care to road safety.
“AI’s gonna cure cancers. It’s gonna come up with better materials. It’ll stop a lot of car crashes,” he said.
Yet the nation’s most prominent banking leader also acknowledged some of the adverse effects AI could have on the U.S. workforce.
“I mean, the world is getting very productive. AI’s gonna do that. The risk is if it is too fast,” Dimon said, echoing concerns from experts that the tech could replace millions of workers.
At the same time, Dimon also shares the view of many economists that AI will, over the long term, create more jobs than it destroys. The key for corporate and political leaders is to be prepared for those changes, he said, in part by ensuring that workers are shifted into new jobs or sectors as the economy demands.
“We take you, and we say, ‘Hey, there are other jobs for you. We’ll retrain you. We’ll move you,'” he said. “And it works. We have to do it in more scale.”
Dimon also said critical industries, such as advanced manufacturing companies, could benefit from a redeployment of workers into areas where labor is in short supply. He suggested that the government and business world should join forces to develop solutions to address any issues that arise as AI is embedded across the economy.
“I do think AI in the long run will create huge benefits for society,” he said. “If it causes problems in the short run, let’s be prepared.”
