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“AI Apocalypse” Downplayed, Impact on Workforce Not as Great as Feared. - Newsmax
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, speaking at a conference last week, publicly announced that “AI would not lead to a global ‘jobs apocalypse’ and the technology had not claimed as many white-collar jobs as he had feared.” His remarks and the change in thinking behind them were outlined yesterday in a Newsmax post.
If realistic, Altman’s projections are good news for Social Security. Those who’ve been following the steadily unfolding insolvency problem facing this venerable senior support program know that one of the drivers is the changing workforce demographics and the projected size of the taxpaying workforce. On this point, the taxpayer-to-beneficiary ratio has dropped dramatically, skidding from 42:1 in 1945 to less than 3:1 today, with projections calling for a continued decline in the years ahead.[1] Further, the most recent annual Social Security Trustees’ report noted, “There were about 2.7 workers for every OASDI beneficiary in 2024.”[2]
The removal of the expected major workforce impact of AI would be welcomed by economists charged with forecasting Social Security’s financial trajectory.
[1] Mercatus Center, How Many Workers Support One Social Security Retiree?, https://www.mercatus.org/sites/default/files/worker-per-beneficiary-chart-jpeg.jpg.
[2] https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/tr/2025/II_D_project.html#132991