AI out of control? How a single article is sending shock waves with an apocalyptic warning

As AI models advance rapidly, experts warn of widespread job displacement while others call it 'doomerism.' What's the reality behind AI predictions? Trending Technology Topics AI out of control? How a single article is sending shock waves with an apocalyptic warning Tech worker Matt Shuman describes how recent AI advances have made his expertise obsolete as models handle complex tasks independently By Howard Kurtz Fox News Published February 16, 2026 3:00am EST Facebook Twitter Threads Flipboard Comments Print Email Add Fox News on Google close Video FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott says artificial intelligence chatter has too much ‘doomerism’ at the University of South Carolina’s Baldwin Business and Financial Journalism Lecture Series FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott participated in a fireside chat on Thursday with University of South Carolina students, discussing media operations and the business of journalism by focusing on culture, collaboration, creativity and change. NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Be afraid. Be very afraid. That’s the message that has caught fire in the media-tech world when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI).This column, for what it’s worth, is being written by a fallible human being on a battered keyboard with no technological assistance. It’s extremely rare–once in a blue moon–that I read a piece that completely changes my view of an issue. Like most people, I have viewed the rise of AI with a mixture of concern, skepticism and bemusement. DEMOCRATS ARE LOSING AI BECAUSE OF A BIG MESSAGING PROBLEMIt’s fun to conjure up images on ChatGPT, for instance, and I get that some people use it for hyperspeed research. But then you hear anecdotes about AI screwing up math problems or spewing stuff that’s simply untrue. Sure, we’ve all seen warnings that this fast-growing technology will cost some people their jobs, but I assumed that would be mainly in Silicon Valley. The era of plane travel didn’t wipe out passenger trains or buses, though it was curtains for the horse-and-buggy business.But now comes Matt Shuman, who works in AI, and he’s not simply joining the prediction sweepstakes. He tells us what is happening right now. Last year, he says, "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, and the time between new model releases was shorter. I was using AI more and more, going back and forth with it less and less, watching it handle things I used to think required my expertise." On Feb. 5, two major companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, released new models that Shuman likens to "the moment you realize the water has been rising around you and is now at your chest." Rude prompts made ChatGPT more accurate. Polite ones scored lower. Tone changed the outcome. (Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson)Bingo: "I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job. I describe what I want built in plain English, and it just ... appears. Not a rough draft I need to fix. The finished thing. I tell the AI what I want, walk away from my computer for four hours, and come back to find the work done. Done well, done better than I would have done it myself, with no corrections needed. A couple of months ago, I was going back and forth with the AI, guiding it, making edits. Now I just describe the outcome and leave." Wait, there’s more. The new GPT model "wasn't just executing my instructions. It was making intelligent decisions. It had something that felt, for the first time, like judgment. Like taste. The inexplicable sense of knowing what the right call is that people always said AI would never have. This model has it, or something close enough that the distinction is starting not to matter." This goes well beyond the geeky world of techies, in case you were feeling immune. "Law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service. Not in ten years. The people building these systems say one to five years. Some say less. And given what I've seen in just the last couple of months, I think ‘less’ is more likely."AI RAISES THE STAKES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY. HERE’S HOW TO GET IT RIGHTMy knee-jerk reaction is, well, I’ll be okay because no super-smart bot could talk about news on TV or podcasts with the same attitude and verve that I do. Then I remember, even as a writer, that news organizations are increasingly relying on AI. What about musicians who bring soul to their rock ’n roll or bop to their pop? Well, the most popular AI singer is Xania Monet. Some fans were stunned to discover she wasn’t real, though created by an actual poet, Telisha "Nikki" Jones, and most listeners didn’t care. In fact, "Xania" now has a multimillion-dollar recording deal. One other sobering thought: "Dario Amodei, who is probably the most safety-focused CEO in the AI industry, has publicly predicted that AI will eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years."Gulp. Experts predict that AI will eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs