Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar corrects criticism that artificial intelligence will create mass unemployment, praising his company for enabling businesses to hire “more” on “The Bottom Line.”
Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer, told FOX Business that artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling a boom in blue-collar productivity — not mass unemployment as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., predicts. – and said AI is accelerating American hiring, training and industrial growth.
Sankar was a guest on “The Bottom Line” Wednesday, where he highlighted the underappreciated reality that AI’s biggest gains are occurring not only among software developers, but also among frontline workers like ICU nurses and factory technicians.
His interview comes a day after Sanders called for a slowdown in AI development and sounded the alarm about potential mass unemployment in a video posted on X.
In the video, Sanders questions how people will survive if they have no income, as AI and robotics can create “massive unemployment” by eliminating “millions of jobs.”
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“We need all of our people, everyone involved in determining the future of AI, not just a handful of multi-billionaires,” he said. “That’s why, as a start, I will push for a moratorium on the construction of data centers that fuel this unregulated sprint to develop and deploy AI. This moratorium will give democracy a chance to catch up.”
Sankar refuted these claims, saying the story that’s really undertold is that AI is a workers’ revolution.
He told hosts Dagen McDowell and Brian Brenberg that ICU nurses and factory workers benefit even more from AI because the manufacturing line foreman can spend more time building parts than planning production and labor thanks to the new technology.
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Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar dismisses unemployment fears, saying AI fuels blue-collar growth, faster training and new jobs in the United States, as Sanders calls for a slowdown in development. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Nurses also benefit because they can spend more time with their patients and providing lifesaving care where minutes count, and less time collecting patient information.
“We have a manufacturing client who, because they were able to streamline their production planning using AI, were able to add a third shift,” Sankar said. “Without a certain labor utilization rate, it was not profitable to hire more American workers. As a result, more jobs are created.”
Another example he gave was Panasonic Energy, a Reno, Nevada-based company that makes batteries for electric vehicles.
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A woman walks under a sign of US big data analytics software company Palantir at its stand ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos on May 22, 2022. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
An apprenticeship to become a qualified battery technician for equipment manufactured by Panasonic Energy normally takes around three years, but using AI the company was able to recruit former casino workers and employ them within three months.
He also said AI would have a “dramatic effect” on how companies like Panasonic Energy hire, train and deploy early talent.
“It’s a real propaganda ploy coming from Silicon Valley, where they want to talk about the power of technology: ‘It’s so powerful it could lead to mass unemployment. So powerful it could end humanity,'” Sankar said. “And frankly, that’s not true. That’s not what you see on the front lines. What you see is an opportunity for American greatness.”
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A computer screen displays an artificial intelligence image. (iStock/iStock)
With AI within people’s reach, the technology could lead to an explosion of new businesses. Someone might have an idea and AI will allow that person to execute it.
But it also raises the question of whether college will be needed for the workforce.
Sankar said he thinks colleges will have to reinvent themselves. At Palantir, he said, a meritocracy scholarship was created for high school students that teaches them technical skills in the field.
In the evenings and weekends, Palantir brings in teachers to provide what Sankar considers a “well-rounded” education.
“I think universities are going to have to really rethink this,” he said.
Sankar’s view that education must adapt to new demands speaks to a broader point: The United States is making the same mistake in its AI strategy by investing billions in data centers while neglecting the aspect that creates real economic value.
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“Well, I think the president has taken the right direction in launching projects like the Genesis mission,” he said. “We have invested a huge amount of capital in what I call the AI offering, building the data centers and the models.
“We need to invest more in AI demand,” Sankar continued. “How can we generate economic value from these models? How do these models generate prosperity for the average American worker? And that’s what we’re relentlessly focused on at Palantir.”
