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yahoo news | Billionaire Larry Fink says you're wrong to think that AI stealing your job is t...

Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chief executive, warned in his latest annual letter that the biggest threat to the U.S. economy is not just white‑collar job loss but the accelerating concentration of wealth driven by artificial‑intelligence adoption. While asset values have surged for owners of stocks, real estate and other holdings, wages have largely stagnated, and AI threatens to deepen this divide by rewarding the few companies and investors best positioned to capture the technology’s upside. Recent Federal Reserve data show the wealth gap at its widest since tracking began in 1989, with the top 1 % holding roughly a third of all U.S. wealth—an imbalance that AI could magnify as it fuels stock‑market gains without broadly raising wages.

Evidence already points to AI reinforcing “K‑shaped” outcomes: workers with AI‑related skills are seeing wage premiums of up to 43 %, while most employees see little productivity or pay improvement and may even face higher workloads managing new tools. The stock market’s AI‑driven rally has lifted overall U.S. wealth by about 7 %, but that gain is almost entirely captured by high‑earning households, leaving the majority of Americans—especially those outside the market—feeling excluded from prosperity. As Fink notes, when market capitalization expands while ownership remains narrow, economic anxiety spikes because capitalism appears to work, just not for enough people.

Looking ahead, some analysts suggest AI could eventually act as an equalizer. Modeling by PwC and proposals from the Urban Institute argue that AI‑driven efficiencies in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing might boost wages and job growth for low‑income workers, and that a universal basic income funded by AI royalties could mitigate rising disparity. However, in the near term the benefits of AI remain tied to ownership of assets or possession of specialized skills, meaning a sizable portion of the population—nearly 40 % of Americans who are not invested in the stock market—may continue to watch the wealth gap widen.

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Billionaire Larry Fink says you’re wrong to think that AI stealing your job is the big problem—it’s really about what it’s doing for his class

AI-driven productivity gains will take time to trickle down to the whole economy, and in the meantime could accelerate inequality.

Fortune