AI could replace 80% of jobs 'in next few years': expert

RIO DE JANEIRO - Artificial intelligence could replace 80 percent of human jobs in the coming years -- but that's a good thing, says US-Brazilian researcher Ben Goertzel, a leading AI guru.

Goertzel is the founder and chief executive of SingularityNET, a research group he launched to create "Artificial General Intelligence," or AGI -- artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities.

Goertzel told AFP in an interview that AGI is just years away and spoke out against recent efforts to curb artificial intelligence research.

"If we want machines to really be as smart as people and to be as agile in dealing with the unknown, then they need to be able to take big leaps beyond their training and programming. And we're not there yet," he said.

"But I think there's reason to believe we're years rather than decades from getting there."

Goertzel said there are jobs that could be automated.

"You could probably obsolete maybe 80 percent of jobs that people do, without having an AGI, by my guess. Not with ChatGPT exactly as a product. But with systems of that nature, which are going to follow in the next few years.

"I don't think it's a threat. I think it's a benefit. People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living... Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable," he said.

"The problem I see is in the interim period when AIs are obsoleting one human job after another... I don't know how (to) solve all the social issues."