--- title: "A New Fear Is Spreading: AI Anxiety" description: "Anxious about AI taking your job? Per a new BBC report, you're not alone — and frankly, automation worries aren't exactly far-fetched." date: "2023-04-22" modified: "2023-04-22" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/fear-ai-anxiety" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "automated jobs" - "automation" - "the digest" --- # A New Fear Is Spreading: AI Anxiety ![Anxious about AI taking your job? Per a new BBC report, you're not alone — and frankly, automation worries aren't exactly far-fetched.]() *Virtual reality goggles and futuristic man. \Image: Getty Images\* ## Relatable Anxious about AI taking your job? According to a [new report from the *BBC*](), you're not alone. "I'm amazed at how quickly ChatGPT has become so sophisticated," Claire, a 34-year-old PR worker who kept her last name private, told the *BBC*. "Give it a few more years, and I can absolutely imagine a world in which a bot does my job just as well as I can," she added. "I hate to think what that might mean for my employability." "I think a lot of creatives are concerned," 29-year-old Alys Marshall, a Bristol, UK-based copywriter, echoed to the *BBC*. "We're all just hoping that our clients will recognize \[our\] value, and choose the authenticity of \[a human\] over the price and convenience of AI tools." ## Economic Anxiety Frankly, anxiety around the impact of AI on the job market right now isn't exactly unwarranted. *Rest of World* [reported just last week]() that Chinese videogame illustrators are already being put out of work by their digital counterparts, while a number of publishers have already started to experiment — often [quietly](), as [we've discovered]() in our reporting — with AI-generated content. There's also the fact that in a [recent memo](), Goldman Sachs predicted that AI may automate 300 *million* jobs. (For context, [according to the US Census Bureau's population clock](), there are roughly 334 million humans living in America today.) Some experts say that those fearing automation should instead focus on controlling what they can control. Just ride the techno-wave, baby. "It is normal to feel anxiety about the impact of AI because its evolution is fluid, and there are many unknown application factors," Carolyn Montrose, a career coach and lecturer at Columbia University, told the *BBC*. Montrose also apparently thinks that anxiety is a choice, and any concerned workers out there should "choose to feel anxious about AI, or empowered to learn about it and use it to their advantage." Great. Cool. But while there is some merit — if only due to necessity — to figuring out how to incorporate AI into your workflow as a means of getting ahead, doing so doesn't mean that a CEO somewhere won't jump at the chance to fire employees in droves regardless. And while human society has historically adjusted to accommodate major technological changes within workforces, adjustment takes time, and AI development and integration is moving rapidly. But hey, just breathe through it, we guess? **More on AI and jobs:** [*Bosses Say They're Already Replacing Workers with AI* ]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()