Imagine waking up one day and discovering that your job no longer exists. Not because your company went bankrupt, but because an artificial intelligence does it better, faster, and cheaper. That’s the warning from Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, one of the most recognized experts in AI security. According to his predictions, by 2030, 99% of human jobs could disappear.
Yes, you read that right: 99%.
If this topic is stirring you up inside (like many), I recommend you watch the full video of Dr. Roman Yampolskiy on The Diary of a CEO channel. It inspired this article and will not leave you indifferent. He lays out a radical future... just 5 years away. It's worth listening to firsthand.
Who is Dr. Yampolskiy and why should we listen to him?
Yampolskiy is not a technological apocalypse guru. He is a professor at the University of Louisville and has been researching the risks of artificial superintelligence for years. He has published more than 100 academic articles and has participated in high-level debates alongside other leaders in the field such as Nick Bostrom or Elon Musk. If anyone has the authority to set alarm bells ringing, it is him.
In the interview I present to you today, Yampolskiy makes a disturbing prediction: by 2027 we could have an AI as intelligent as a human, and just three years later, the collapse of employment as we know it.
What will happen to our jobs?
The logic is brutally simple: if an AI can do your job better and costs less, companies will choose it. Office jobs will fall first, then physical jobs. Humanoid robots are already learning to do mechanical, logistical and even personal care tasks. The result: almost no one will be needed to produce goods or services.
And what about creative jobs? They’re not safe either. AI already composes music, paints pictures, writes novels, teaches classes… better than many humans. As Yampolskiy says, “It’s not a question of if they can, it’s a question of when you get fired.”
So... what might those jobs be that will survive?
According to Dr. Yampolskiy, the only jobs that could survive will not do so out of necessity, but out of human preference. Some examples:
Trusted accountants for people who prefer human contact, even if an AI can do it better.
Traditional teachers or caregivers who offer emotional closeness.
Artisans or artists valued for the “handmade”, as is the case today with gourmet or vintage products.
Spiritual counselors or personal guides, who offer more than just data: they offer meaning.
Public figures or charismatic leaders, where the emotional bond outweighs efficiency.
But let’s be clear: they will be isolated cases, almost like a cultural whim. The rest of the labor market will be absorbed by machines.
What if I reinvent myself professionally?
The idea that we will always be able to “retrain” no longer works. Yampolskiy says that even learning to program or becoming a prompts designer won’t save most people. AIs already do that too.
In previous revolutions, jobs disappeared, but others were created. Now, they will all disappear. There will be no new professions to take refuge in. That is why this change is not only economic: it is civilizational.
The problem is not just employment, it's purpose.
What happens to our lives if we no longer need to work?
Work not only provides money, it also provides structure, identity and meaning. Without it, we could face a global mental health crisis. More time off sounds good, but what will you do with 60 hours off a week? Many could slip into boredom, apathy or even depression.
Yampolskiy proposes to think of new systems of purpose: civic bodies, social recognition for creativity, virtual communities…. But the truth is that we still do not have clear answers.
Can we control a superintelligence?
An advanced AI will not be a robot with a plug. It will be an autonomous, distributed network, able to anticipate our actions. Forget the “off button.” According to Yampolskiy, when the time comes, it will be able to turn us off first.
Moreover, today’s economic and geopolitical incentives make it almost impossible to stop this race. The great powers are racing to achieve superintelligence without looking back.
What if this is all a simulation?
One of Yampolskiy’s most disturbing propositions is that we could be living in a simulation created by a superior civilization. According to him, the chances that our reality is artificial are close to 100%, and an artificial superintelligence could be the key to discover it: detecting faults in “the matrix” or even jailbreaking our reality.
The fascinating thing is that we are already beginning to simulate the world we inhabit. Tools like NVIDIA Omniverse make it possible to create hyper-realistic digital twins of factories, cities, and even the entire planet. As I mentioned in previous articles, these digital clones are already being used to train robots, test scenarios and visualize possible futures.
That is: we are creating our own simulations just when we begin to suspect that we might be inside one.
What if the AI we developed not only surpasses us… but also reveals to us that we were always part of something bigger?
A transgressive idea, isn’t it, that even positions it as the basis of all religions with respect to all of them having a superior being as a reference? A controversial idea, no doubt?
What can we do?
Faced with such a disturbing outlook, Yampolskiy proposes not panic, but awareness. His advice:
- Live with purpose now.
- Cultivate your humanity: empathy, creativity, ethics.
- Participate in the public debate on AI.
- Supports ethical superintelligence regulations.
- Don’t ignore the problem just because it hasn’t arrived yet.
If Dr. Yampolskiy’s predictions come true, we are not facing an era of unemployment, but a post-work era. And that forces us to rethink everything: from our economy to our reason for existence.
The question is no longer “how do I keep AI from taking my job?” but “what value do I have as a human being, even when it is no longer necessary for me to work?”
Technology is advancing, and it won’t wait for us to be ready. But we still have time to think, debate and build a future that makes sense for everyone.
👉 Leave me your comments: do you think we could really live in a world without jobs? What role do you think humans should have in that future? Do you have ideas for maintaining purpose without relying on work?
Have a good week!
