Sunak: AI Reduces Youth Hiring, UK Can Lead in Deployment

Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that artificial intelligence is flattening the jobs market for young people, with company bosses privately acknowledging reduced recruitment due to the technology. Sunak said concerns from graduates looking for entry-level jobs were justified, particularly in service sectors such as law, accountancy, and the creative industries.

He stated that chief executives think they can continue to grow their businesses without increasing employment because they are starting to see how they can deploy AI.

To address this, Sunak suggested that governments should eliminate National Insurance to make hiring workers more attractive. He proposed rebalancing the tax system by abolishing National Insurance over time and replacing it with taxes on corporate profits.

Sunak said taxes on corporate profits would be boosted by productivity and efficiencies in deploying AI. Sunak said lots of countries will have to examine how to rebalance their systems as they face raising less revenue from employment taxes and have to find that money elsewhere.

"We should be thinking about, well, how do we tip the balance in favour of AI being used in that positive way… to help people do their jobs better [rather than replacing them]," he told BBC Newsnight.

" Sunak was appointed as an advisor to both Anthropic and Microsoft last year. He is also a senior adviser at investment bank Goldman Sachs. During his time as prime minister, Sunak set up an AI safety summit in 2023.

Earlier this month, Anthropic announced its new AI model, called Claude Mythos. Anthropic said Claude Mythos can outperform humans at some hacking and cyber-security tasks. Britain's AI Security Institute, established under Sunak's premiership, became the first to test Mythos' capabilities.

Sunak joined forces with Labour's deputy prime minister David Lammy to promote investment in the UK tech sector at a recent AI summit. Sunak said he was a 'big believer' in 'Londonmaxxing' and 'Britmaxxing' which was how some in the tech industry are describing a wave of recent multi-billion pound investments in the sector.

or say that things aren't working but in this area there are huge reasons for us to feel confident and proud," he said.

Sunak said the UK had the opportunity to be the world's foremost productive user of AI in the world, on top of now significant presence of companies such as Deepmind, Anthropic and OpenAI in Britain. "We are an AI superpower any which way you look at it," he stated.

BBC News reported these details from Sunak's interview, where he expressed enthusiasm for AI's transformative impact while addressing employment challenges.

Sunak emphasized that while there are reasons to be worried about the future, governments can take action. The former prime minister, who made tech regulation a priority, highlighted the UK's role in testing advanced AI models like Claude Mythos.