Starmer tells UK to ‘push past’ AI job fears as tech leaders raise alarm

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said it is time to “push past” concerns that AI poses a threat to human jobs — contradicting the concerns of some of tech’s biggest players.

Speaking at London Tech Week today, Starmer called for industry to embed AI throughout the UK economy, from healthcare to education. 

By taking on administrative tasks, Starmer argues that artificial intelligence tools can free up people to focus on the “human work.” For this reason, he said, “AI will make us more human.”  

Starmer’s assertion that AI is not here to replace humans, but to relieve them, is a popular sentiment among AI evangelists, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. 

By taking over the grunt work — such as filling out forms, summarising emails, or analysing spreadsheets — they argue that AI will enable people to do more meaningful work.

However, not all tech leaders are so optimistic. Sebastian  Siemiatkowski, CEO of Swedish fintech unicorn Klarna, recently cautioned that rapid AI deployment may trigger a recession by decimating white‑collar jobs. 

Speaking on The Times Tech Podcast, Siemiatkowski claimed AI bots had already enabled the buy now, pay later firm to slash its workforce from 5,500 to 3,000 and replace 700 customer service roles. 

“There will be an implication for white‑collar jobs and when that happens that usually leads to at least a recession in the short term,” he said. He also criticised tech leaders for “downplaying the consequences of AI on jobs,” urging urgent societal preparation. 

Dario  Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, painted an even starker picture in an interview with CNN last month. He warned that AI could wipe out “half of all entry‑level white‑collar jobs” within five years, potentially pushing unemployment in the US to 20%.

AI has already been linked to job losses in many professions, including translation, customer service, copywriting, paralegal work, data entry, graphic design, and journalism. In an ironic twist of fate, the tech is also threatening the jobs of the developers who helped create it. Entry-level jobs that graduates rely on to kickstart their careers look to be the most at risk.

While Starmer’s vision that AI will make us more human by shouldering mundane tasks paints a hopeful future, current trends paint a more complex picture. The warnings from Siemiatkowski, Amodei, and many others suggest that, without urgent preparation and governance, we’re sleepwalking into economic uncertainty.  

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