Descriptions:
Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and 2020 presidential candidate who made AI-driven unemployment the centerpiece of his campaign, joins Scott Galloway and Ed on Prof G Markets to assess whether his early warnings have come to pass. The conversation revisits Yang’s 2018 predictions—made before ChatGPT existed—that AI and automation would displace millions of workers, starting with call center, retail, and eventually trucking jobs, and examines why Silicon Valley insiders knew this was coming but stayed quiet because their business plans depended on displacing labor.
The data now backs him up. Last year, companies attributed roughly 55,000 layoffs to AI, and unemployment among recent college graduates climbed to 5.6%, the highest rate outside the pandemic in over a decade. Oracle’s recent cut of 30,000 workers—tied to a $50 billion data center investment push—exemplifies the broader shift of capital from human headcount to compute infrastructure.
Yang also introduces nuance around “AI washing,” where companies blame AI for layoffs also driven by prior overhiring, making leadership look forward-thinking rather than mistake-prone. More sobering are his private conversations with a dozen CEOs who have told him directly they plan sequential headcount reductions of 15–20% over the next several years. The episode closes by revisiting Yang’s original policy proposal—a $1,000/month Freedom Dividend—and what updated responses to accelerating displacement might look like.
📺 Source: The Prof G Pod – Scott Galloway · Published April 24, 2026
🏷️ Format: Interview
