The Sydney Morning Herald
· collected 2026-09-17 · by Kishor Napier-Raman
The article discusses the concerns raised by artificial intelligence (AI) companies like OpenAI and Anthropic over potential risks associated with rapid AI development, including fears of job displacement and existential threats. Despite these warnings, recent employment data from various countries shows no immediate signs of mass unemployment due to AI; for example, the United States added 162,000 jobs in September 2023. The article suggests that while AI is changing job markets, it also creates new opportunities and questions whether fears about a job apocalypse are overstated or premature.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
OpenAI and Anthropic, the dominant frontier labs, have thrown plenty of elbows in their race toward stratospheric, trillion-dollar stockmarket listings.
asserted
OpenAI → throw → listings
But this week, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, their respective leaders, reached a rare unity ticket along with fellow AI kingpin Elon Musk, calling for a slowdown on artificial intelligence development in the name of saving humanity.
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Altman → reach → humanity
This latest bout of fear coming from inside the house began after Anthropic researcher Jacob Poxon resigned last week, accusing the companies of “gambling with our lives”.
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Poxon → come → lives
That announcement prompted his former colleague, Evan Hurbinger, to claim that there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI would “kill all humans” within the next decade.
uncertain
AI → prompt → decade
Fortunately, all this has been rejected by US President Donald Trump, who has insisted that attempts to slow down AI are a “sick conspiracy” to let China get ahead, creating the absurd situation where highly valuable companies are begging a recalcitrant government to regulate them.
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government → reject → them
They are less worried about geopolitical rivalry or the prospect of rogue agents creating a devastating virus than whether the machines will take their jobs.
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machines → create → jobs
In May 2025, the Anthropic boss Amodei predicted that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs would be obliterated in the next five years, sending unemployment rates into the double digits.
uncertain
half → predict → digits
If there is perhaps one micro-dose of optimism among all the bleak AI news, it is that the tsunami hasn’t yet hit.
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tsunami → be → news
Instead, employment data from around the world paints a messy, paradox-filled picture.
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data → paint → picture
The United States added 162,000 jobs in September, exceeding expectations and strengthening the case for the country’s Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which it did for the first time since 2023 on Wednesday, much to Trump’s chagrin.
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it → add → chagrin
Here in Australia, unemployment crept up unexpectedly to 4.5 per cent in July, its highest rate in the post-COVID era in trend terms.
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unemployment → creep → terms
While it’s too soon to tell whether this is the start of a longer-term trend, a 0.1 per cent increase does not seem like the start of a job apocalypse.
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increase → ’ → apocalypse
The rose-tinted view of the AI boom suggests that, like every past industrial revolution, the latest technological rupture will destroy many jobs but create different new ones.
uncertain
rupture → suggest → ones
Some recent number-crunching in The Economist magazine found that AI had created around 1 million new jobs in the United States, with many attributable to the data centre construction boom.
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many → find → boom
The problem is that while data centres are delivering reliable, well-paid blue-collar work, those jobs are temporary.
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jobs → deliver → work
These AI “factories” don’t resemble the real thing when it comes to employment.
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it → resemble → employment
Then there’s the fact that they have become a widely despised symbol of everything people resent about AI, with opposition to their development cutting across political lines and threatening to stall that job explosion.
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opposition → ’ → explosion
Whether that infrastructure delivers in Australia is also contested.
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delivers → deliver → Australia
The local sector’s lobbyists insist it will “support” 935,000 jobs.
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it → insist → jobs
But as this masthead recently reported, that figure comes from a line in a 2024 report by consulting firm Mandala (which has partnered with OpenAI in the past) and conflates data centre work with all tech sector jobs.
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which → report → jobs
More importantly, the report was commissioned by five of the country’s biggest data centre operators.
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report → commission → operators
Separately, economic think tank the e61 Institute claims there are only around 11,500 data centres workers in Australia nationally.
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Institute → claim → Australia
Even if data centres are the future, it’s quite a stretch to imagine soft-handed software engineers (let alone journalists) to retrain as construction workers.
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engineers → ’ → workers
Beyond blue-collar work, AI is still causing ruptures in the labour market.
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AI → cause → market
Research from Princeton University’s Sania Edlich and Apollo Global Management chief economist Tortsen Slok found that rather than destroying jobs, AI was stifling wage growth.
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AI → find → growth
Those “different” jobs created by the AI boom could well be repetitive, boring and lower paid.
uncertain
jobs → create → boom
The next few years could see Australia struggle with the “K-shaped” economy which has characterised the United States post-COVID in which the asset-rich few thrive thanks to a surging stock market and corporate profits, even as wages stagnate for the many.
uncertain
wages → see → many
The problem is that AI is moving at such a fast clip that there are many people with opinions, but few are truly informed.
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few → move → opinions
Now, it is the frontier lab bosses, the people who have seen what the technology can do, who are sounding the loudest alarms.
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who → see → alarms
At least the unemployment rate probably doesn’t matter too much if humanity is wiped out.
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humanity → matter → ?
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newsletter → deliver → stories
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