Uncontrolled Layoffs Due to AI to Cause Social Unrest: Jamie Dimon

More than three years after the launch of ChatGPT, anxiety about artificial intelligence in the workplace remains high — especially among Gen Z — as corporate America pushes for higher productivity from leaner workforces.

Dimon pointed to the roughly 2-million-strong commercial trucking industry as an example. (Photo: Port of Antwerp-Bruges)

The US’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, is no exception, Preston Fore reported for Fortune.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the company’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, admitted he will likely employ fewer workers in the next five years — but warned that rushing into AI-driven layoffs without safeguards could backfire, potentially triggering “civil unrest.”

Instead, the 69-year-old said he would even welcome government bans on replacing masses of workers with AI.

But before it gets to that stage, he already has ideas up his sleeve to protect some of the more than 300,000 employees on his payroll. “I have a plan to retrain people, relocate people, income-assist people,” Dimon said.

Dimon pointed to the roughly 2-million-strong commercial trucking industry as an example.

A sudden shift to fully autonomous trucking, he said, could displace workers who currently earn well into six figures, leaving them struggling to make ends meet. “Phase it in. Retrain,” he said.

“You can’t lay off 2 million truckers tomorrow. You can phase it in over time.”

And if that doesn’t suffice and government intervention is needed to prevent companies from cutting jobs too aggressively, Dimon said he would support it — especially if it comes from local incentives.

“We would agree — if we have to do that to save society,” he said. “Society will have more production. We’re going to cure a lot of cancers. You’re not going to slow it down. How do you have plans in place to make it work better if it does something terrible?”