Writing for FAIR, Conor Smyth argues that corporate media––including The Atlantic, ABC, PBS, CBS, the New York Times and Axios––has spun an exaggerated narrative that artificial intelligence is tanking the job market for new college graduates. AI, he writes, is stealing far fewer jobs than the public might believe, and this narrative serves as a grand distraction from the effects of the Trump administration’s policies driving down entry-level hiring.
CONOR SMYTH; [email protected]
Smyth is a graduate student of economics at John Jay College and co-host of the History Onion podcast.
Smyth told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “Artificial intelligence is a new phenomenon that people have become extremely afraid of. My reporting digs into that story to understand how much there is to be afraid of and how much is hype. Media is mishandling this one story in particular about AI job loss. We are seeing this story that AI is taking jobs from college grads, and that narrative will most likely continue over the next several years. It could be that AI has a large impact on employment; I wouldn’t rule it out as a temporary significant disruption. But we need to be really careful about reading the evidence as it comes in and not getting ahead of ourselves.
“This story seems like a classic case of the media wanting to promote a sensational story about harm. In other stories, like reporting on minimum wage increases, there is an obvious ideological basis at play, since corporate media outlets aren’t particularly favorable toward progressive policies. With AI, on the other hand, there is an undercurrent of fear mongering. The general public is afraid of AI. Preying on these existing fears is a way of garnering a lot of attention. But in reality, this story is a lot more complicated.
“In general, mainstream media has not been covering job loss writ large; they’ve been picking up on job loss related to AI. But those narratives have been mostly false. As the economy starts to potentially slow down or move into a recession in the next few years because of Trump’s policies, the public might believe AI is to blame for that turn of events. The distraction from Trump’s policies doesn’t seem to be an intended effect––it’s an unintended consequence.”