While prominent figures in the tech world have warned about AI’s role in unemployment, US President Donald Trump said he believes artificial intelligence will create so many jobs that there won’t be enough people to fill them. He even suggested that robots may be needed to step in and cover the gaps.
Trump shared his views during an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, where he seemed confident about the future of AI and its growing role in the global economy.
AI will create so many jobs, Trump predicts
During his two-hour-long interview with the NYT, Trump pushed back against the common fear that AI will take away people’s jobs. Instead, he said the opposite will happen. “I think AI is going to be a tremendous job producer,” he said. He added that the industry would grow so fast that there would not be enough workers to keep up. According to Trump, that is where robots would come in to help.
His comments go against the concerns raised by many experts, including his close ally Elon Musk, who predicts that AI could replace human workers across many industries.
Elon Musk has long taken a much harder line on what AI could mean for jobs. He doesn’t just think machines will replace some workers, he has repeatedly said they will eventually replace everyone.
To explain it, Musk often uses a simple example. He compares work to growing your own vegetables. In his view, a time is coming when you won’t need a job to survive. Basic needs would be taken care of by technology, and working would become a choice. Much like gardening today, when food is already available at the store.
Musk has claimed artificial intelligence could be smarter than any single human as early as 2026, and could surpass all human intelligence combined not long after that.
‘Whoever wins AI, leads the world,’ Trump says
During the interview, Trump described artificial intelligence as a powerful force that could decide which country leads the world. “Whoever wins the artificial intelligence war is going to be really the leader of the world,” he said. But Trump made it clear that, in his view, this “war” is about money, growth, and jobs, not about cyber threats or digital security.
While Trump spoke positively about AI’s economic promise, he showed little concern about its possible risks. When asked whether relying on AI could make the United States more open to cyberattacks from China, Trump brushed off the concern. “China did that anyway,” he said.
He went on to say that cyber activity goes both ways. “We do that to China,” he added, saying both countries try to gain advantages over each other.
There is ongoing debate among labor and workforce experts about what AI will really mean for jobs. Some believe it could lead to large-scale unemployment as machines take over routine tasks. Others argue that while some jobs may disappear, new ones will be created that require different skills.