Uber cofounder offers ‘white pill’ perspective on AI job disruption, says humans will be ‘super fine’ until AGI arrives

(SeaPRwire) –   Business leaders are divided over whether AI will spark a job apocalypse or bring about “super interesting” future roles. Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick thinks the curtain is finally being pulled back on the truth of tech-induced workplace changes: there’s an “other side” to the narrative, where human workers are more influential than they’ve ever been.

“Until we get super [artificial general intelligence], humans are valuable,” Kalanick stated in a recent episode of the TBPN podcast. “And they are going to become more and more valuable, because they will be the long pole in the tent to progress.”

The serial entrepreneur and CloudKitchens CEO cites a blue-collar occupation as an example: plumbers.

If every job globally were automated except plumbing, those human workers would be “extremely valuable” since they’re absolutely critical to the success of expanding infrastructure. New buildings couldn’t be constructed without plumbers being easily accessible—and with “so much efficiency across the board,” millions of people would be needed for the task.

Kalanick also addressed the possibility that all human workers might one day be replaced by super AGI. Even so, he shared an upbeat, “white-pilled” perspective: new “solutions” will arise, and there’s no reason to worry about a job extinction—at least for now.

“Until we get there, I believe we’re going to be super fine,” he went on. “That’s my white pill.”

CEOs Who Believe AI Will Create ‘Better’ Jobs and ‘Superhuman’ Work Skills

While many employees are fretting about the future of their careers, several CEOs believe AI will boost humans rather than overwhelm them.

DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis thinks AI will actually create new roles that utilize these tools and “are actually better.” In a 2025 interview with Wired, he said that if all goes smoothly, the technology will usher in a “golden era” of extreme abundance over the next 10 years.

Rather than being a job destroyer, he forecast that AGI will be a boon for society—curing illnesses, extending lifespans, and discovering new energy sources beginning in 2030.

“If that all happens, then it should be an era of maximum human flourishing, where we travel to the stars and colonize the galaxy,” Hassabis added, noting that AI will act as “these incredible tools that supercharge our productivity and actually almost make us a little bit superhuman.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also maintained that the next decade could be the most exciting period ever to launch a career, even with the growing anxiety around AI automation. Mirroring Hassabis’ prediction, Altman sees huge potential for new human roles in space. These space explorers will earn comfortable salaries and will “feel so bad for you and I that we had to do this really boring, old work and everything is just better.”

“In 2035, that graduating college student, if they still go to college at all, could very well be leaving on a mission to explore the solar system on a spaceship in some completely new, exciting, super well-paid, super interesting job,” Altman told journalist Cleo Abram last year.

Leaders are also praising the concept that AI will equip workers with “superhuman” skills—and as the technology evolves, it will only improve. Rather than being a career risk, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said AI gives his colleagues an edge in an industry innovating at a lightning-fast pace.

“I’m surrounded by superhuman people and super intelligence, from my perspective, because they’re the best in the world at what they do,” Huang told Abram in a 2025 episode. “And they do what they do way better than I can do it. And I’m surrounded by thousands of them. Yet it never one day caused me to think, all of a sudden, I’m no longer necessary.”