Sorkin: Justifying AI Valuations Requires Eliminating Human Labor Costs
Andrew Ross Sorkin · Are We Screwed If AI Works? — With Andrew Ross Sorkin · Mar 18, 2026 · at 1:32
Financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses whether widespread adoption of successful AI could drive U.S. unemployment toward 1930s Great Depression levels.
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“Meaning if you ever wanted to think about what would this country look like with 25% unemployment, how would you get there? And I think the answer is potentially if AI is as successful as I think we all hopefully want it to be to the extent you believe these valuations are real, all of the math behind it, The only way that really works to some degree is to create extraordinary productivity, and what does productivity mean? Well, it means a lot of growth at a lot less cost. How do you take out that cost? Well, we're both looking at each other, and that's pretty much, we are the cost.”
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