- By Prateek Levi
- Thu, 07 Aug 2025 03:19 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Artificial intelligence is the buzzword this year, with one of the biggest innovations happening in this field. Not only is big tech enhancing the capabilities of their present AI architecture, like the new version of ChatGPT and other AI models that can now do research-level work with their "Deep Research", etc., but this year has also seen many new players entering the AI race as well.
With this rapidly pacing environment where each day we are getting to see AI achieve a new milestone, it raises several concerns. Apart from the fact that AI these days is completely capable of reproducing fresh content just by typing in a prompt, to a point where deepfakes and doctored videos have become a major concern, there lies another threat that artificial intelligence poses, which is that it might soon be capable of replacing you in your workplace as well.
Now this might come as a shocker to some people, but former Google executive Mo Gawdat has issued a stark warning about the societal impact of artificial intelligence, predicting that the rise of AI could wipe out the middle class and plunge the world into chaos within just a few years.
Gawdat, who previously served as Chief Business Officer at Google X, said during an appearance on British entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO podcast that AI is on track to replace white-collar workers at a scale never seen before — and that no job is safe.
"The next 15 years will be hell before we get to heaven," he said, suggesting that disruption will begin as early as 2027. According to him, even software developers, podcasters, and CEOs are at risk of being replaced.
Drawing from his own experience, Gawdat pointed to his startup Emma.love, which develops emotionally intelligent, relationship-focused AI. The platform is operated by just three people, a stark contrast to what would have once required hundreds of developers.
"That startup would have been 350 developers in the past. As a matter of fact, the podcaster is going to be replaced."
He warned that widespread job loss caused by AI could lead to deep societal problems, including a crisis of identity, increasing mental health issues, and growing divisions between the elite and the rest of society.
"Unless you're in the top 0.1 per cent, you're a peasant. There is no middle class," he claimed.
Gawdat also argued that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) won’t stop at replacing lower-level positions—even top executives could find themselves outpaced.
"AGI is going to get better at everything than humans, at everything, including being a CEO. The one thing they don't think of is AI will replace them, too."
Meanwhile, his warning comes on the heels of similar concerns voiced by Geoffrey Hinton, often referred to as the “godfather of AI”. Hinton recently raised alarms about AI developing its own internal communication systems.
"Now it gets more scary if they develop their own internal languages for talking to each other," Hinton said.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they developed their own language for thinking, and we have no idea what they're thinking."
He further added that AI is already capable of forming dangerous thoughts, and it’s possible that future AI systems could evolve to think in ways that are completely incomprehensible to humans.
"It is not unthinkable that the machines could eventually think in ways that humans cannot track or interpret."
This is definitely an alarm we should not ignore, as top dogs in the tech world are raising concerns which are serious enough to alter the course of human life. It is time for us totake a deeper look into research and analysis of these AI tools and raise debate around ethics and regulation of AI, as it plays a growing role in society.