AI and Employment: Don't Fall for the Alarmist Rhetoric

Article published in the media Les Echos April 22, 2026

The impact of AI on the labor market will be ambivalent, destroying some jobs while improving productivity and facilitating access to other jobs. The issue of apprenticeships for young workers is complex, explains Frédéric Cherbonnier.
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is casting a shadow of pessimism over the job market. The CEO of Anthropic has predicted that nearly 50% of jobs in tech, finance, and consulting could disappear within five years. Only manual labor would be protected by the famous Moravec’s paradox: sensorimotor tasks involve a level of computational complexity that is far more difficult to replicate than cognitive tasks. While ChatGPT can summarize a report in a matter of seconds, it remains incapable of manipulating an object in space in real time.

The AI threat particularly affects young, skilled workers—and is already having an impact today, with a projected 15% decline in the hiring of junior-level candidates in the affected sectors in the United States by 2025...

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