London Mayor Sadiq Khan: AI could become a weapon of mass destruction for jobs

Date:
Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:55:00 +0000

Description:
The Mayor of London warns AI could bring mass unemployment.

FULL STORY

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has warned that Artificial Intelligence
could usher in a new era of mass unemployment.

London is particularly vulnerable, he argues, because the city relies heavily on white-collar workers in finance and creative industries, especially given the high concentration of professional services like accounting, law, consulting, and marketing - all of which are at risk from AI advancement.

Junior and entry-level jobs will be the first to suffer, Khan pointed out in
a speech to business leaders, arguing, we have a moral, social, and economic duty to act.

Moral, social, and economic duty to act

With this comes the launch of a London taskforce on AI in the future of work, offering free AI training for London residents, and looking to assess the potential harm to the employment landscape.

Khan describes a clear choice for business leaders to be responsible in their deployment of the tech: Seize the potential of AI and use it as a superpower for positive transformation and creation or surrender to it and sit back and watch as it becomes a weapon of mass destruction of jobs.

He admitted there are huge potential benefits to AI, toeing the party line
amid UK government plans to unleash AI in the public sector , explaining that AI could enable us to transform our public services, turbocharge
productivity, and tackle some of our most complex challenges.

Over half of Londoners expect their job to change in the next year thanks to AI, with the Bank of England governor warning AI is likely to replace jobs as well as a sharp market correction when the AI bubble bursts, which could
cause particular financial difficulties should unemployment rise in the meantime.

It should be noted that the Labour Government has laid out plans to push AI into all corners of British industry with multi-billion pound investments,
and has confirmed huge infrastructure projects to support the tech.

Via: The Guardian

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-ai-could-become-a-weapon -of-mass-destruction-for-jobs

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