‘Godfather of AI’ says billionaires like Elon Musk are right about the future of work—but he predicts mass unemployment is on its way

Geoffrey Hinton, the British computer scientist known as the 'Godfather of AI,' said in a November 2025 discussion with Sen. Bernie Sanders at Georgetown University that massive unemployment caused by AI is 'very likely,' predicting that tech companies investing roughly a trillion dollars in data centers and chips will sell AI to replace workers more cheaply. Hinton, who quit Google in 2023 and won the Nobel Prize last year, warned that new jobs created by AI will not offset the number eliminated, and he urged skepticism about long-term predictions, comparing forecasting AI's future to driving in fog.

The long-term impact of AI is one of the most hotly debated topics in Silicon Valley. Nvidia https://fortune.com/company/nvidia/ CEO Jensen Huang https://fortune.com/2025/08/29/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-4-day-work-week-productivity/ predicts every job will be transformed—and likely lead to a four-day workweek. Other tech titans go even further: Bill Gates https://fortune.com/2025/03/27/billionaire-bill-gates-two-day-workweek-ai-replacing-humans/ says humans may soon not be needed “for most things,” and Elon Musk https://fortune.com/2025/12/01/forget-the-four-day-workweek-elon-musk-predicts-you-wont-have-to-work-at-all-in-less-than-20-years-billionaire-success-wealth/ believes most humans won’t have to work at all in “less than 20 years.” While those predictions might sound extreme, they’re not just plausible, they’re likely, said Geoffrey Hinton https://fortune.com/2025/08/15/godfather-of-ai-endgame-short-term-profit-humanity-future-superintelligence-risks/ , the British computer scientist widely known as the “Godfather of AI.” The transition, he warned, could trigger a sweeping economic reshuffling that leaves millions of workers behind. “It seems very likely to a large number of people that we will get massive unemployment caused by AI,” Hinton said in a November 2025 discussion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz3gvM7Oj3g with Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt. at Georgetown University. “And if you ask where are these guys going to get the roughly trillion dollars they’re investing in data centers and chips…one of the main sources of money is going to be by selling people AI that will do the work of workers much cheaper,” he continued. “And so these guys are really betting on AI replacing a lot of workers.” Hinton has grown increasingly vocal about what he sees as Big Tech’s misplaced priorities. The industry, he previously told Fortune https://fortune.com/2025/08/15/godfather-of-ai-endgame-short-term-profit-humanity-future-superintelligence-risks/ , is driven less by scientific progress than by short-term profits—fueling a push to replace human workers with cheaper AI systems. His warnings come as the economics of AI face new scrutiny https://fortune.com/2025/11/19/nvidia-earnings-artificial-intelligence-magnificent-seven-apple-stocks-investors-guide/ . OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, isn’t expected to turn a profit https://fortune.com/2025/11/26/is-openai-profitable-forecast-data-center-200-billion-shortfall-hsbc/ until at least 2030 and may need more than $207 billion to support its growth, according to HSBC https://fortune.com/company/hsbc-holdings/ estimations published in November 2025. The future of AI is behind a fog of war Hinton’s journey from AI insider to outspoken critic underscores the high stakes of the technology he helped create. After quitting his Google job in 2023 to speak more freely about AI’s risks, he has become one of the most prominent skeptics. Last year, his pioneering work in machine learning earned him the Nobel Prize. He also acknowledged AI will create new jobs, as many tech leaders predict https://fortune.com/2023/12/21/ai-will-spur-more-hiring-and-ingenuity-per-person-adobe-scott-belsky/ . But he added he does not expect the number of new roles to come close to the number eliminated. Even so, he cautioned that all predictions—including his own—should be treated with heavy skepticism. “Trying to predict the future of it is going to be very difficult,” Hinton told Sanders. “It’s a bit like when you drive in fog. You can see clearly for 100 yards and at 200 yards you can see nothing. Well, we can see clearly for a year or two, but 10 years out, we have no idea what’s going to happen.” What is clear, however, is that AI isn’t going away, and experts say workers who adapt https://fortune.com/2024/04/18/ai-playfulness-genai-artificial-intelligence-success-productivity-management-suzy-levy/ —and use the technology to amplify their skills—will stand the best chance of navigating the coming upheaval. 100 million jobs are at risk, Bernie Sanders warns Sanders has attempted to quantify the stakes. In a report released in October 2025 https://fortune.com/2025/10/07/100-million-jobs-at-risk-of-elimination-senator-bernie-sanders-report-ai-kill-40-hour-workweek/ —based partly on estimates generated by ChatGPT—he warned nearly 100 million U.S. jobs could be displaced by automation. Workers in fast food, customer service, and manual labor face some of the highest risks, but white-collar roles in accounting https://fortune.com/article/gen-z-reviving-accounting-profession-six-figure-salaries-irs-volunteer-income-tax-assistance-program-vita/ , software development, and nursing could also see significant cuts. “It’s not just economics,” Sanders wrote in an op-ed for Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-sanders-ai-benefit-everyone-not-just-handful-billionaires . “Work, whether being a janitor or a brain surgeon, is an integral part of being human. The vast majority of people want to be productive members of society and contribute to their communities. What happens when that vital aspect of human existence is removed from our lives?” Sen. Mark Warner https://fortune.com/2025/11/20/gen-z-college-grad-unemployment-could-hit-25-percent-warns-us-senator-unprecedented-disruption-ai/ D-Va. has raised similar alarms, warning the disruption could hit young people first and hardest—potentially driving unemployment among recent college graduates to as high as 25% in the next two to three years. “Let’s look at the fact we never did anything on social media,” Warner told CNBC . “If we make that same response on AI and don’t put guardrails, I think we will come to rue that day.” A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com on December 4, 2025. More on the future of work in history to start a business—and his advice is to stop overthinking it: ‘How hard can it be?’ Jensen Huang says this is the greatest time https://fortune.com/2026/07/31/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-greatest-time-to-start-business-advice-for-aspiring-gen-z-entrepreneurs/ - Crypto billionaire Michael Saylor says he made $15 billion last year with ChatGPT—and has one rule: ‘Don’t try to outwork the robots’ —and predicts a wave of new careers like world builders and personal biologists Mark Zuckerberg says the future will have an ‘abundance of jobs’ https://fortune.com/2026/08/10/mark-zuckerberg-says-the-future-will-have-an-abundance-of-jobsand-predicts-a-wave-of-new-careers-like-world-builders-and-personal-biologists/ breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune Daily Fortune ’s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. Watch here.