AI is a job-killer—and not just for factory workers—that was Barack Obama message to Americans last week: “We’re now seeing these platforms perform high-level intellectual work… Everybody now—not just blue-collar workers—has to figure out: where do I get a job? How do I feed my family?” It was a week of high drama over AI and jobs, exposing fault lines not only between political parties, but within them.
The Widening Divide
MAGA was front and centre. Playing to the Base, Steve Bannon used his War Room platform to broadside MAGA AI advocates, like Elon Musk. Bannon warned that AI could wipe out up to 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs in five years. He sees youth unemployment nearing 20%, especially among professionals under 30. And Trump, he complained, is doing little—even though Bannon believes job loss could define the 2028 election.
Broadcaster Charlie Kirk echoed the alarm, noting AI is creeping into once-untouchable professions: medicine, law, accounting. “Even cardiologists aren’t safe,” he warned on Turning Point USA.
Meanwhile, Musk—MAGA’s most visible AI advocate—announced he was quitting politics, frustrated by the slow pace of reform. As head of DOGE, he pushed a pro-AI agenda, using advanced tools to root out government inefficiencies—much to the chagrin of populists like Bannon. While the initiative was supposed to cut $2 trillion from the budget, that number now sits at $150 billion.
Musk and Bannon have clashed over AI and jobs before. Last January, when Musk supported visas to bring in foreign AI workers, Bannon, a MAGA nativist, blasted him for giving away American jobs. Now, he’s found a bigger target: AI automation. And it could be enough to split MAGA’s Silicon Valley wing from its populist base.
JD Vance seems to be looking for middle ground: “AI should enhance, not supplant human labor,” he said last week. But Trump’s AI policy remains staunchly antiregulatory, with little appetite to support workers. That won’t resolve the looming clash between innovation and employment.
The Policy Imperative
Perhaps ironically, it was Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, whose interventions seemed to strike the best balance. In an interview with Axios, Amodei said AI could eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years and drive unemployment to 10–20% if governments don’t act.
As the designer of one of the world’s most advanced chatbots, Claude, Amodei is an unlikely figure calling on governments to protect jobs—but he says it was necessary. Political leaders, he reports, seem ignorant (perhaps knowingly) of how quickly AI is evolving and spreading.
Amodei hasn’t just gone public with his concerns—he’s offered policy prescriptions to address the threat:
- Transparency and Warning: Track AI use across professions to help the public understand which jobs are vulnerable.
- Augmentation, Not Ejection: Employers should learn how AI can enhance—not replace—human work.
- Legislative Briefings: Congress needs formal briefings to jumpstart debate.
- Redistributive Models: Amodei proposes a “token tax”—a 3% fee on commercial AI revenue, redistributed through government channels. “That’s not in my economic interest,” he admitted, “but it might be the only way to avoid economic chaos.”
Much like Obama, Amodei’s bottom line is: “You can’t just step in front of the train and stop it. The only move that’s going to work is steering the train… but we have to do it now.”
Just the Beginning
If the jobs issue erupted last week, this may be the first sign of a mega-trend that experts have been predicting for some time:
- The International Monetary Fund estimates that nearly 40% of global jobs are exposed to AI—~60% in advanced economies, ~26% in emerging markets. The IMF urges investment in digital infrastructure, reallocation strategies, and safety nets.
- The World Economic Forum reports 40% of employers expect AI-related reductions, but also predicts 170 million new jobs by 2030, with 92 million displaced—netting a gain of 78 million. Reskilling and education are central to that vision.
Some of that future is already taking shape here in Canada:
- TELUS AI Data Centres: A $70 billion plan includes two Sovereign AI Factories in Kamloops and Rimouski, delivering domestic compute power and asserting digital sovereignty.
- Bell AI Fabric: Bell is building six AI-ready data centres across Canada, with 500 megawatts of capacity to support national deployment (Bell Canada, Q1 2025).
A second signal comes not from a shovel, but a forecast. TD Cowen projects global enterprise spending on “agentic AI”—autonomous digital systems embedded in daily workflows—to surge from $3.4 billion in 2025 to $51.5 billion by 2028. This isn’t just software—it’s a new infrastructure layer. If TELUS and Bell are building the physical backbone, this is the brain: the organizational shift that will define how work is done—and by whom—in the next decade (Not 007 But a New Kind of AI Agent).
These are big moves that are part of an even bigger mega-trend. But public discussion of their societal impact has been limited. Who benefits? Who’s displaced? Who gets a say?
MAGA’s internal discord should be a warning. AI may be a powerful economic driver, but the disruption it brings will almost certainly be profound, and not just in the U.S. Here at home, Prime Minister Mark Carney has proposed a plan to launch an ambitious set of “nation-building” projects to make Canada an Energy Superpower.
This focus on energy may sound reassuringly familiar to Canadians, but let’s be clear: the large-scale projects of the future—whether focused on infrastructure, resource extraction, or manufacturing—will be increasingly AI-driven, as are Carney’s plans to renew the federal public service.
Canada’s new Minister of AI and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, should take note: a successful minister of AI needs to be as focused on building the skills workers need for this new era as getting businesses and government to invest in the tools.
We can’t stop the train, but we can still choose the tracks—and who gets to ride.
Don Lenihan PhD is an expert in public engagement with a long-standing focus on how digital technologies are transforming societies, governments, and governance. This column appears weekly. To see earlier instalments in the series, click here.
