Key Takeaways
- AMD CEO Lisa Su told CNBC in an interview Tuesday that she doesn’t see AI’s rise wiping out the need for human workers.
- “We have to figure out how to harness the power of the technology instead of being afraid,” she said.
Worries about AI’s potential to disrupt industries and jobs have rattled markets lately. One big tech exec at the center of the change doesn’t see AI wiping out the need for human workers.
“The idea that AI is going to replace everything, I am not a believer in that,” Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su told CNBC Tuesday. “I’m a believer in ‘AI is going to make each of us better and each of our businesses better.'”
Shares of AMD (AMD) finished Tuesday up nearly 9%, leaving it with a market capitalization around $350 billion. The stock helped lead the S&P 500 higher after the company announced a massive AI chip deal with Meta Platforms (META), a company Su called one of the likely “winners in AI innovation going forward.” Shares of Meta were little changed. (Read Investopedia’s full coverage of today’s trading here.)
Why This Matters to Investors
The debate over the effect artificial intelligence will have on everything from white-collar work to individual stocks has lately driven a range of short-term stock reactions. Some investors have worried that AI spending isn’t paying off; others appear concerned that it’ll be so effective that it upends the economy.
Resurgent concerns about the effects artificial intelligence could have on the job market and established industries have roiled markets in recent days. A viral report from Citrini Research over the weekend fueled fears the technology’s rise could lead to a stock market crash as it threatens to displace workers and services across a wide range of industries.
At AMD, Su said, employees are using AI to work faster, but that the technology is “nowhere close” to the level where people wouldn’t be needed.
“We have to create and invent it, and then AI can help us make it faster, more efficient, more productive,” she said.
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Workers “might have to retrain,” she said, to take advantage of new opportunities with AI.
Last month, the CEO said that while AI hasn’t stopped the company from hiring, it has changed how the company hires, in favor of candidates who are “AI forward.”
“We definitely have to ensure that we know how to use the tools, but we have to figure out how to harness the power of the technology, instead of being afraid of the technology,” she said.