In 2026, the grim comedy of late capitalism seems to have found a perfect punchline: workers laid off in a dismal job market are now being hired to train AI systems meant to replace them altogether.
If a great AI replacement ever comes to pass, the scale of potential displacement is massive. MIT researchers recently calculated that today’s AI systems could already automate tasks performed by more than 20 million American workers, or about 11.7 percent of the entire US labor force.
And things are looking tangibly grim: in January, the total number of job cuts exceeded even 2009, when the country was still roiling from the great recession.
That being the case, it’s no surprise that workers are worried — and not just about their immediate employment prospects. The anxiety is evolving into something deeper, the result of AI’s seemingly rapidly expanding intelligence.
Back in August, a poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos showed that 71 percent of American respondents are concerned that AI will put “too many people out of work permanently.” Though there was little evidence AI was causing mass unemployment at the time, a slew of layoffs in early 2026 have thrust the possibility of AI-fueled labor dystopia back into the spotlight.
Those anxieties aren’t just felt by workers or labor leaders. A massive list calling for a “prohibition” on the development of superintelligence is now nearing 135,000 signatures online. Its endorsers run the gamut from tech luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton and Steve Wozniak to conservative commentators like Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck to national security operatives like Mike Mullen and Susan Rice.
Even celebrity figures like Prince Harry are on board. “The future of AI should serve humanity, not replace it,” the Duke of Sussex commented under his signature. “The true test of progress will be not how fast we move, but how wisely we steer.”
The list also includes members from both sides of the political aisle in the US. In an interview with the Atlantic, Bannon explained why he put his name on the list alongside prominent Democratic lawmakers like Gary Ackerman and Joe Crowley — or, as he called them, “lefties that would rather spit on the floor than say Steve Bannon is with them on anything.”
“We’re in a situation where people on the spectrum that are not, quite frankly, total adults… are making decisions for the species,” Bannon said, with his usual delicacy and eloquence. “Not for the country. For the species. Once we hit this inflection point, there’s no coming back. That’s why it’s got to be stopped, and we may have to take extreme measures.”
More on AI: New Site Lets AI Rent Human Bodies
The post Fear Grows That AI Is Permanently Eliminating Jobs appeared first on Futurism.
