Yann LeCun, a prominent AI researcher with over 40 years of experience, said AI doom narratives are harming teenagers' mental health and the fears of extinction are "extremely destructive" and wrong. He told Axios a small portion of high school students were depressed because of alarming claims that AI will cause human extinction. "A small proportion of high school students are actually kind of depressed because they've read that AI is not only going to take a job, but basically cause human extinction," LeCun said [1].
LeCun cautioned against trusting the statements of AI CEOs to assess the technology's impact, saying they have a vested interest in promoting their products. He said, "Don't listen to CEOs ... they have a vested interest in propping up the power of the products they sell," emphasizing skepticism toward such claims [1].
He rejected claims that AI will eliminate 20% of jobs, arguing that while some roles may be lost, new job categories will emerge similar to past technological shifts. LeCun called the idea of massive job losses "ridiculously stupid" and said AI tools today are powerful but still lack strong reasoning abilities, making human-level AI unlikely in the near future [1].
LeCun also recommended students still go to college and pursue fields with a "long shelf life" such as physics or electrical engineering. "Study things with a long shelf life," he said, encouraging a focus on durable skills rather than chasing hype [1].
Axios published the report on LeCun’s comments on May 4, capturing his advice for navigating the AI era [1]. His remarks aim to ease fears and refocus young people on education despite widespread anxiety about AI’s future impact.