Jamie Dimon says AI could help us have 'wonderful lives'

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said on Sunday that he feels optimistic about artificial intelligence, believing it has the potential to deliver a better work-life balance even as it triggers job cuts.

Speaking to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, Dimon said he doesn’t believe "AI is going to dramatically reduce jobs” in the next year. "For the most part, AI is going to do great stuff for mankind, like tractors did, like fertilizers did, like vaccines did,” he said. “Maybe one day we’ll be working less hard but having wonderful lives."

Still, Dimon acknowledged there will be continued layoffs tied to AI. And he thinks both the private and public sectors need to play a role in minimizing its damage, ensuring it is “properly regulated."

Government and corporations "should look at how do we phase it in a way that we don’t damage a lot of people,” he told Bartiromo.

“We should have done a little bit more on trade assistance years ago when you had a town that got damaged by the closure of a plant. And that you can do. You can retrain people, relocate people, income assistance, early retirement. And the next job may be a better job," Dimon continued.

Dimon argued workers who are worried about being replaced by AI tools should focus on critical thinking, emotional intelligence, communication, and hard skills to stay ahead.

The CEO also pushed back on the narratives that businesses are more cautious on hiring because of AI; Dimon argued that jobs and wages are a little weaker "just because [companies] want to do more with less" — a central premise of automation.

This isn’t the first time Dimon has spoken positively about how AI will affect workers. 

At the American Business Forum in Miami this November, Dimon said: “My guess is the developed world will be working three and a half days a week in 20, 30, 40 years” thanks to AI.

But Dimon's dreams are far from fruition, and, in fact, the opposite seems to be happening. Workers at many AI startups in Silicon Valley are recording 72-hour workweeks, following the "996" schedule — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week — that's so brutal it was once banned in China.

Still, many of Dimon's peers have offered a similar outlook.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last month that he believes AI has the power to fix America's national debt.

"I think, actually, the only thing that can solve for the debt situation is AI and robotics," Musk said in a podcast interview with billionaire investor Nikhil Kamath. Musk believes it "probably would cause significant deflation."

And Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said AI could bring about a 2- or 3-day workweek and cause society to fundamentally rethink its relationship to work.