Fearing AI disruption, white-collar workers are quitting their jobs

Some white-collar workers are leaving established careers because they fear artificial intelligence will change or eliminate their roles, and say it has already affected the quality and stability of their work. The trend reflects a growing gap between reassuring employment data and workers’ expectations about the future, as some choose to pursue different careers or work they find more meaningful.

Examples include AI researcher Mrinank Sharma, who left Anthropic for a poetry degree, and former public relations worker Vanessa Hsia, who is studying comparative literature after nearly a decade in the field. A software engineer at a large technology company is considering leaving as colleagues anticipate coding automation, while former editor Hanna Horvath shifted to several kinds of freelance work. The article says AI has created about 1 million US jobs, compared with 200,000 layoffs attributed to it, yet 71% of Americans expect it to reduce jobs over the next 20 years.