AI boom will produce victors and carnage, tech boss warns
1 hour ago Share Save Faisal Islam , Economics editor and Oliver Smith , Business reporter Share Save
AI is going to "change everything", says Cisco boss Chuck Robbins
Winners will emerge from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) boom, but there will be "carnage along the way", the boss of a US tech giant has warned. Chuck Robbins, chairman and chief executive of Cisco Systems, told the BBC the technology will be "bigger than the internet", but the current market is probably a bubble and some companies "won't make it". Cisco, one of the world's leading technology companies, is behind some of the critical IT infrastructure enabling day-to-day use of AI. Robbins said some jobs will be changed, or even "eliminated", by AI, particularly in areas like customer services where companies will need "fewer people", but urged workers to embrace, not fear, the technology.
His comments follow a series of warnings over the recent surge in investment in AI, with some claiming the sector amounts to a bubble set to burst, rocking markets and bankrupting companies. The BBC has been told of similar concerns by leading figures in finance and tech. JPMorgan Chase boss Jamie Dimon said some of the money invested in AI would "probably be lost", while Google parent company Alphabet's chief executive Sundar Pichai said there was some "irrationality" in the AI boom. Sceptics compare the supposed bubble to the dotcom boom and bust of the late 90s.
Cisco was the world's most valuable company in the year 2000, but saw its value fall by 80% when the dotcom bubble burst. It has since rebuilt, and now partners with firms such as Nvidia, providing the essential infrastructure underpinning AI. Despite having £1.3bn in orders in the current quarter alone, Robbins is alive to comparisons with the dotcom collapse.
"There's been a lot of discussion about: 'Is this a bubble?'. And the answer is probably yes, but we had a bubble in 2000 with the internet. And look at where we are today. "So the winners emerge, and there's carnage along the way, but it is going to be bigger than the internet," he said. "It feels a lot like it (the dotcom crash), but what happens is you'll have money that will be invested in companies that won't make it, but the winners will emerge, the applications and use cases will begin to evolve." Robbins compared AI to iPhones, with the constant development of new applications, saying new uses for the technology will develop over time. He said it will make "lots of things better", but also has "potential risks we all have to mitigate".
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Embrace AI at work, don't fear it
One risk is to people's livelihoods, with growing fears AI will lead to mass job losses. Robbins said some jobs will be eliminated, while others will be changed, but workers can thrive if they embrace and learn to use the technology. "You shouldn't worry as much about AI taking your job as you should worry about someone who's very good using AI taking your job," he said.
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