Yann LeCun, AI pioneer, calls CEO warnings about AI job losses 'extremely destructive' and says economists doubt the claims

Yann LeCun, former Meta AI chief and Turing Award winner, told Axios that doom narratives about AI wiping out entry-level white-collar jobs are wrong and 'extremely destructive.' He urged high school students not to abandon college plans based on these fears, citing parallels to past technological revolutions.

LeCun warned that the real danger is not AI itself but the psychological impact of apocalypse claims on young people—some high school students are 'depressed' and 'take that seriously' when they read AI could cause 'human extinction'—leading them to make life-altering decisions.

Despite warnings from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman, labor-market data contradicts doomsday predictions: 77% of the class of 2025 found a role within three months of graduation (up from 63.3% a year ago), and unemployment for 20- to 24-year-olds fell to 6.4% in March from a high of 9.2% last September.