AI Reality Check: Is AI Stealing Entry-Level Jobs?

Last summer, the Wall Street Journal published an article with an alarming headline. AI is wrecking an already fragile job market for college graduates. It then goes on to say, companies have long leaned on entry-level workers to do grunt work that doubles as on-the-duty training, now ChatGPT and other bots can do many of these chores. Now, this idea that young people are having a particularly hard time finding jobs and that this is due in part to AI soon took off and became conventional wisdom. Variations of this claim have been cited ever since.

Now, look, this belief is starting to have a real impact. Just last week Axios wrote an article that was titled, AI is making college students change majors, and it cited a survey that showed 16% of currently enrolled college students have changed their studies due to concerns about AI. That number jumps to 25% when you consider students who are studying technology, which is all to say If you've been reading AI coverage recently, you've probably encountered these type of claims many times.

But are they true? Today, we're going to look for some measured answers. I'm Cal Newport and this is the AI reality check. All right, so the question we're looking at today, is AI reducing the market for entry-level jobs? Now, I'm not an economist.

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