AI could put people off tech jobs and hurt the economy, warns Raspberry Pi boss

The founder of British computer maker Raspberry Pi has warned that overestimating the abilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could put people off pursuing tech jobs and hurt the economy. Eben Upton told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast this could distort people's choices in ways that make that skill shortage worse and not better. Some people are very inclined to overestimate what these [AI] tools can do, he said, and warned against claims that it would destroy vast numbers of computing roles over the coming years. The rise of tools such as ChatGPT and Claude have led to predictions of huge job losses, particularly for tech workers and graduates. Amazon, Meta and Microsoft have already blamed tens of thousands of layoffs on AI over the last year.