Episode 375 – A recent essay by Matt Shumer, CEO of OthersideAI, an artificial intelligence company, has gone viral. He projects widespread employment disruption due to the rise of AI, and much more quickly than most people expect. Is he right?

Hello, this is Bill Rainaldi, with another edition of Security Mutual’s SML Planning Minute. In today’s episode: are we really on the precipice of an AI apocalypse?

Just in case you missed this, an essay written and published in February 2026 by Matt Shumer, CEO of OthersideAI, an artificial intelligence company, has gone viral. It got over 50 million views in its first three days.[1] His message: be very afraid.

Shumer is sometimes referred to as an “AI Influencer.”[2] He says that he’s noticed a trend in recent months. The change isn’t coming; it’s already here. And worse than that, it’s accelerating. “In 2025, new techniques for building these models unlocked a much faster pace of progress. And then it got even faster. And then faster again. Each new model wasn’t just better than the last… it was better by a wider margin.”[3] In other words, according to Shumer, AI is now building on itself.

Shumer claims he is no longer needed for the “actual technical work” of his job. In fact, he claims that AI has gone from “helpful tool” to “does my job better than I do.”[4] He also shares a prediction that 50 percent of entry-level white-collar jobs will be eliminated in one to five years. Things such as writing, legal work, medical analysis and customer service are especially in jeopardy, in his opinion. If this is if fact the case, one might wonder how white-collar management candidates will be trained in five years. Could a fight for upper management candidates in white-collar industries develop? And how might that affect the companies and industries themselves in the long term?

That said, there’s certainly no shortage of pushback on Shumer’s post. Paulo Carvão at Forbes argues that Shumer’s essay is, to some extent, a sales pitch. One of the pieces of advice Shumer gives is to sign up for the most expensive premium AI models. He suggests that those people will be better off than those who use the standard off-the-shelf models.[5]

Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus of cognitive science at NYU, has referred to Shumer’s essay as “weaponized hype.”[6] Marcus’s criticism is two-fold. First, he says that studies have indicated that AI models still exhibit significant reasoning errors, even in advanced AI systems. He also accuses Shumer of making exaggerated claims about some of the other models he had previously worked on.[7]

That said, it’s only natural to think that AI could change employment dynamics in the long run. However, it seems unlikely that AI will similarly affect blue-collar workers. AI might be able to write a legal brief for you, but it still can’t fix your plumbing.

This is certainly not our first technological revolution. Another criticism is that if Shumer is correct, this time would be different from all the others.[8] In the long run, every other technological upheaval has created more jobs than it eliminated.[9] And the effect that AI has on white-collar employment may take longer than Shumer expects, if it happens at all.

Take the financial services industry, for example. AI may be helpful with certain research-related projects, but you’ll still need someone to guide you through the maze of options you have, for example, when funding a retirement plan or applying for life insurance. And a human being can help address some of your emotional and family issues that AI will never understand. Never underestimate the value of human contact.

There are, of course, a lot of good things that come from AI. It makes sense that AI can make you more productive. It may eventually do some of the more tedious and time-consuming tasks you have to deal with, allowing you to focus on more meaningful items, such as long-term strategic planning. It also has the potential to improve the quality and length of all of our lives through more accurate medical diagnostics and analysis.

Just how much of Shumer’s prophecy comes true—and perhaps more importantly, when—remains to be seen. It’s safe to say that there will be some disruption. No one can know just how much and how quickly. But it may be a bad idea to buy into the instant hype. Sixty years after The Jetsons, our world looks nothing like everyone thought it would. In the words of Andy Kessler, columnist at The Wall Street Journal, “We won’t see a utopia or dystopia. We’ll see faster growth and more productivity.”[10]

One final note. This podcast was written 100 percent by a human being without the help of AI. We’re still here!

[1] Vasilescu, Mario. “Matt Shumer’s Viral AI Post—50M views in 72h— Exemplifies the Entire Broken AI Discourse, Moltbook Included.” Thinkingthroughai.substack.com. https://thinkingthroughai.substack.com/p/matt-shumers-viral-ai-post50m-views (accessed February 26, 2026).

[2] Kahn, Jeremy. “Matt Shumer’s viral blog about AI’s looming impact on knowledge workers is based on flawed assumptions.” Fortune.com. https://fortune.com/2026/02/12/matt-shumers-viral-blog-about-ais-looming-impact-on-knowledge-workers-is-based-on-flawed-assumptions/ (accessed February 26, 2026).

[3] Shumer, Matt. “Something Big Is Happening.” Linkedin.com. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/something-big-happening-matt-shumer-so5he/ (accessed February 26, 2026).

[4] Id.

[5] Carvão, Paulo. “The Problem With Tech’s Latest ‘Something Big Is Happening’ Manifesto.” Forbes.com. https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulocarvao/2026/02/13/the-problem-with-techs-latest-something-big-is-happening-manifesto/ (accessed February 26, 2026).

[6] Kahn, Jeremy. “Matt Shumer’s viral blog about AI’s looming impact on knowledge workers is based on flawed assumptions.” Fortune.com. https://fortune.com/2026/02/12/matt-shumers-viral-blog-about-ais-looming-impact-on-knowledge-workers-is-based-on-flawed-assumptions/ (accessed February 26, 2026).

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Kessler, Andy. “Ignore the AI Hysteria.” The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/ignore-the-ai-hysteria-b64eac84?mod (accessed February 26, 2025).

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