Former Google Executive Predicts 30% Job Losses by 2028 in Certain Sectors
"I'm bold a little bit on this, on the fact that 30% of jobs would disappear by 2028, of some sectors, not all sectors. Some sectors will disappear by 2028."
About this episode
In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, host Steven Bartlett sits down with Mo Gowdat, former Chief Business Officer at Google X and author of multiple books on AI and happiness. The conversation centers on an urgent warning about artificial intelligence's imminent impact on society, jobs, and geopolitics. Gowdat, who worked on AI projects at Google starting in 2007, delivers stark predictions: AGI (artificial general intelligence) will arrive by 2027, up to 30% of jobs in certain sectors will disappear by 2028, and humanity faces a decade of dystopia before reaching an AI-enabled utopia around 2038. He argues that Western democracy has effectively ended due to corporate capture of government, with tech oligarchs now wielding more power than elected officials. The most pressing threat, according to Gowdat, is not job displacement but the proliferation of cheap autonomous weapons that will make warfare ubiquitous and accessible to all nations. He contends that current AI development is driven by capitalist incentives and military competition rather than human welfare, with companies like OpenAI accepting surveillance contracts while Anthropic refuses them on ethical grounds. Despite forecasting severe near-term disruption—including potential civil unrest from unemployment, economic collapse, and autonomous warfare—Gowdat maintains long-term optimism, believing superintelligent AI will eventually impose ethical order based on physics' minimum energy principle. He calls for individuals to take small ethical actions: switching to ethical AI providers, learning to use AI tools, focusing on human-connection jobs, and pressuring governments to prioritize citizens over corporate interests. The conversation reveals a technologist grappling with responsibility for helping build transformative technology now being weaponized and monopolized, yet refusing to abandon hope that informed public action can still alter the trajectory.
Key takeaways
- Gowdat predicts 30% of jobs in sectors like call centers and graphic design will vanish by 2028, comparing the disruption to the Great Recession which saw only 6% job losses.
- He claims democracy has ended in the West, with governments owned by tech oligarchs who are now more powerful than elected officials.
- Autonomous weapons costing as little as $20,000 represent the biggest near-term AI threat, making warfare cheap and accessible to all nations.
- AGI will arrive by 2027 according to Gowdat, with artificial superintelligence following shortly after, leading to a decade of dystopia before utopia around 2038.
- OpenAI accepted a $500 million contract for surveillance and targeting technology while Anthropic refused similar deals on ethical grounds.
- China is positioned to win the AI economic race due to cheaper energy, faster permitting, and government protection of domestic jobs from AI displacement.
- Gowdat urges individuals to vote with their AI usage, learn to work with AI tools, focus on human-connection jobs, and take small ethical actions to influence the trajectory.