Welcome to Tech It From Me – where we unpack the headlines shaping our digital world.
This week, we’re diving into a bold claim from Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called Godfather of AI. He recently said:
“AI will replace everyone doing mundane intellectual labour.”
That’s a heavy statement. But is it true?
Table of Contents
🤖 What Did Geoffrey Hinton Actually Say?
Geoffrey Hinton, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and pioneer of deep learning, appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast. His main points:
- AI will replace mundane intellectual labour.
Jobs like call centre agents and paralegals are at risk because they involve repetitive tasks AI excels at. - Joblessness threatens human happiness.
Even if governments provide universal basic income, Hinton warns mass unemployment could cause unhappiness and societal issues.
And there are real examples. During the NBA Finals, an entire commercial was produced entirely by AI for just $2,000 in two days – no human production crew, no actors.
🧑💼 The Industry Response
Companies are paying attention:
- Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy said AI will reduce the need for certain roles while creating new ones.
- Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, predicts AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, with unemployment rising to 20% if adaptation lags.
- Mark Daley, Chief AI Officer at Western University, argues jobs will transform rather than disappear entirely. As he said:
“We’ve never had a technology transition where we’ve got machines that think.”
💬 Why I Don’t Fully Agree with Hinton
Here’s my take.
AI is incredible at performing tasks. But it’s terrible at caring.
An Analogy: Singing with Emotion
Anyone can technically sing a song. But why do certain singers move us deeply? Because they sing with emotion, drawing from heartbreak, hope, joy, or pain they’ve felt.
AI can replicate lyrics and notes perfectly. But it can’t make you cry or inspire you – it doesn’t feel.
Human Empathy Still Matters
In so-called mundane jobs:
- Customer service reps calm angry customers not just by following scripts, but by detecting subtle tones – a crack in a voice signalling tears, or a pause revealing hidden fear.
- Legal assistants catch document nuances that AI misses because they care about preventing client risk.
These traits are fundamentally human. AI can simulate empathy with phrases like “I’m so sorry you’re experiencing this today.” But real empathy comes from actually caring. You hear it in someone’s tone, sighs, and pauses.
🧾 Where AI Will (and Should) Take Over
Let’s be real – AI will replace purely repetitive data tasks:
- Data entry
- Summarizing meeting transcripts
- Processing invoices
- Writing draft marketing copy
And that’s good. It frees us to focus on creativity, strategy, and relationships – work that truly matters.
What Does This Mean For You?
If you’re worried AI will replace your job, ask yourself:
✔️ What do I bring that an algorithm can’t?
✔️ Is it empathy? Intuition? Creativity? Leadership?
These are your greatest assets in an AI-driven world.
💡 A Personal Example
Years ago, at a Fortune 100 company I worked for, a data analyst flagged a reporting error that neither our Business Intelligence software nor our AI plugin caught.
Why? Technically, the data matched all validation rules. But he knew the business context so well that he saw something was off.
Digging deeper, we discovered inventory cost percentages had been shaved off, leading to unnecessary inventory purchases. His judgement saved the company millions in potential billing disputes.
That wasn’t mundane. That was human judgement in action.
**Transcript** >> Click here to view or download the full episode transcript