MIT AI Risk Repository · Risk Sub-Category · 60.03.01

Labour market risks

Category: Systemic risks

Description

"Current general-purpose AI is likely to transform the nature of many existing jobs, create new jobs, and eliminate others. The net impact on employment and wages will vary significantly across countries, across sectors, and even across different workers within the same job."

From International AI Safety Report 2025 (Bengio2025), as extracted by the MIT AI Risk Repository (CC BY 4.0).

Classification

Causal entity
Other
Intent
Other

Subdomain definition: Widespread use of AI increasing social and economic inequalities, such as by automating jobs, reducing the quality of employment, or producing exploitative dependencies between workers and their employers.

Real-world incidents in this subdomain

Browse all incidents in this subdomain

How other frameworks describe this risk

  • Job loss/losses

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Societal destabilisation

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Societal inequality

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Labour exploitation

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Political instability

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Increased income disparity

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Economic

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Effects on the Workforce

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

Other entries from Bengio2025