One chart shows AI's jobs impact — and how it compares to other tech advances

Ah, the Yale Budget Lab has crunched the numbers and delivered the sobering truth: AI has had a 'modest impact' on U.S. jobs since ChatGPT's release in 2022. Modest. That's the word they chose. Because nothing says 'revolutionary technology destined to upend civilisation' quite like a shoulder shrug from a budget lab. They say it's 'changing jobs more than eliminating them' — a classic bit of academic doublespeak that lets everyone pretend the ground isn't slowly shifting beneath their feet. One can almost hear the sighs of relief from the tech bros who promised us a job-pocalypse.

The real kicker is the comparison: AI's impact is 'similar to the impact of the internet and computers.' Right. Because the internet only obliterated print media, retail, and the concept of privacy. And computers? They just replaced half the office workforce with a spreadsheet. So AI is on track to be as disruptive as the things that already upended our economy — but this time it's different, apparently. The Yale Budget Lab says so, and they have charts.

So there you have it: AI is a modest little helper, gently rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Don't mind the fact that 'changing jobs' often means 'making them more precarious, automated, or outsourced to a chatbot.' But hey, at least it's not worse than the dot-com bubble. Yet. Give it a decade, and we'll look back at this 'modest impact' like we do the early internet — a quaint precursor to the glorious, algorithm-run dystopia we were all warned about.