Forget rogue robots, AI’s biggest threat is the ‘layoff trap’
by James Eyers · Australian Financial ReviewJames EyersSenior Reporter
Sep 25, 2026 – 12.11pm
As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese strutted the global stage this week in New York, building a political coalition to regulate artificial intelligence and protect societies from existential risks, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, back in Canberra, was selling the government’s intergenerational report – which calls out AI risks of a different kind.
Casting its policy eye out a few decades, federal Treasury described the looming impact of AI on the economy, productivity and jobs. “Labour market impacts of AI are not yet fully evident but are expected to be uneven,” the intergenerational report says. It made it clear that debates about AI safety must take place alongside those relating to industrial policy.
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James EyersSenior ReporterJames Eyers writes on banking, finance, payments, regulation and emerging technologies. Based in Sydney, he is a former legal and investment banking editor at the AFR and has been a business journalist for more than 20 years. Email James at jeyers@afr.com.au
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