Matt Schumer, AI expert: “The world is in danger”
He believes that what the world will witness in the short and medium term will be similar to the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of the internet.
Artificial intelligence is advancing at a pace that feels almost unstoppable. While many people see enormous potential across countless fields, others are increasingly uneasy about what this acceleration could mean—especially for the job market.
A growing number of workers fear that anyone who fails to adapt to AI could be left behind. And comments from AI expert Matt Shumer have only intensified that anxiety. As he bluntly puts it: “The world is in danger.”
Shumer lays out his concerns in an essay titled “Something Big Is Happening,” where he compares today’s AI boom to the early days of COVID‑19 in 2020. Back then, a handful of people were sounding the alarm about a fast‑spreading virus while most of the world carried on unaware. Within weeks, everything changed. According to Shumer, the shift AI is about to unleash—particularly in the labor market—will be even more dramatic.
“We’re facing something much, much bigger than COVID‑19,” he warns.
He also draws parallels to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the internet, but argues that this moment is fundamentally different. “This isn’t like previous waves of automation, and it’s important to understand why,” Shumer writes. When factories automated, displaced workers could move into office jobs. When e‑commerce reshaped retail, people shifted into service or logistics roles. But with AI, he argues, there may not be obvious new sectors waiting to absorb those who are replaced, because AI targets cognitive work itself.
What exactly is “white‑collar work”?
Shumer points to a prediction from Dario Amodei, widely regarded as one of the AI industry’s most safety‑focused CEOs. Amodei estimates that around 50% of white‑collar jobs could disappear within one to five years.
But what counts as a white‑collar job?
The term originated in the United States and refers to salaried employees who perform office‑based work—often administrative or clerical tasks—even if they don’t hold advanced degrees. These roles typically involve cognitive or organizational skills rather than manual labor.
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