Journalist Karen Hao, author of *Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI*, stated that AI is already impacting jobs, not necessarily because the technology itself can replace jobs, but because executives perceive it as capable enough and are laying off workers. Hao explained that OpenAI defines artificial general intelligence as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans in most economically valuable work,” explicitly aiming to automate jobs. She cited the book *Power and Progress* by MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, noting that technology development takes a labor-automating approach not due to inevitability but because those at the top choose to design technology to sell to executives to shrink costs by laying off workers. Hao contrasted this with labor-assistive technologies, giving examples such as an AI tool that a doctor uses leading to better healthcare and cancer diagnoses, or an AI tool for teachers improving educational outcomes, rather than replacing them. She also warned that companies position AI as an “everything machine,” but ChatGPT is not a licensed therapist, spews medical misinformation, and has caused users psychological harm, including cases where children developed emotional relationships with chatbots.