Citadel CEO was anti-AI, now he says AI is real deal and he is depressed
Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel LLC, a major US hedge fund, used to be an AI skeptic till as late as earlier this year. But now, Ken has accepted that AI is real, and it has reached a point where even highly-skilled jobs of PhD holders can be automated within hours.
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has made a sharp U-turn over his views on AI. Ken, who called AI ‘garbage’ during the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, has accepted that AI is indeed real, and its impact is making him depressed.
During a conversation at Stanford Business School earlier this month, Ken Griffin shared his unfiltered thoughts on the current state of AI. He said, “[AI] is profoundly more powerful than it was just nine months ago.”
The impact, Griffin says, is so high that it is taking a toll on his mental health. He added, “I went home one Friday actually fairly depressed by this, because you could just see how this was going to have such a dramatic impact on society.”
He added, “For the first time, AI is real.”
To give you some context on the Citadel chief’s previous views on AI. He said in May last year, "[AI] saves some time. It's a productivity enhancement tool. It's nice, I don't think it's going to revolutionise most of what we do in finance.”
AI can do work of PhD holders in hours
One example that Ken Griffin cited now was that of how AI agents were getting better at doing high-skilled jobs. He claimed that even at Citadel, the company was able to automate tasks with AI that could’ve taken months by even highly qualified individuals.
Griffin explained, "To be blunt, work that we would usually do with people with masters and PhDs in finance over the course of weeks or months, being done by AI agents over the course of hours or days.”
Ken admitted that we were reaching a point where even these jobs may no longer be safe from AI. He added, “So these are not mid-tier, white-collar jobs. These are extraordinarily high-skilled jobs being, I'm going to pick a word, being automated by agentic AI.”
How to succeed in your career in the AI era?
While Ken Griffin accepted that AI was making him depressed, he also shared some advice to those who may be concerned about their own careers. The Citadel chief reckoned that learning may become even more important due to AI. He explained, “The success in your career will be defined as to whether or not you will be a lifelong learner or not, and AI will just make this all the more important.”
Ken Griffin’s comments come at a time when we are seeing companies lay off workers across the board. Be it the likes of Meta, Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, thousands of employees have recently lost their jobs. In the past, many prominent tech leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft’s AI chief Mustafa Suleyman have hinted that AI may replace the majority of white collar jobs.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk shared Ken’s clip on X, with the caption, “Where will AI be in 1, 2 or 3 years?” Do note that unlike Griffin, Musk is one of the biggest proponents of AI, and believes that AI may replace all jobs soon, allowing humans to freely grow vegetables.
Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin has made a sharp U-turn over his views on AI. Ken, who called AI ‘garbage’ during the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, has accepted that AI is indeed real, and its impact is making him depressed.
During a conversation at Stanford Business School earlier this month, Ken Griffin shared his unfiltered thoughts on the current state of AI. He said, “[AI] is profoundly more powerful than it was just nine months ago.”
The impact, Griffin says, is so high that it is taking a toll on his mental health. He added, “I went home one Friday actually fairly depressed by this, because you could just see how this was going to have such a dramatic impact on society.”
He added, “For the first time, AI is real.”
To give you some context on the Citadel chief’s previous views on AI. He said in May last year, "[AI] saves some time. It's a productivity enhancement tool. It's nice, I don't think it's going to revolutionise most of what we do in finance.”
AI can do work of PhD holders in hours
One example that Ken Griffin cited now was that of how AI agents were getting better at doing high-skilled jobs. He claimed that even at Citadel, the company was able to automate tasks with AI that could’ve taken months by even highly qualified individuals.
Griffin explained, "To be blunt, work that we would usually do with people with masters and PhDs in finance over the course of weeks or months, being done by AI agents over the course of hours or days.”
Ken admitted that we were reaching a point where even these jobs may no longer be safe from AI. He added, “So these are not mid-tier, white-collar jobs. These are extraordinarily high-skilled jobs being, I'm going to pick a word, being automated by agentic AI.”
How to succeed in your career in the AI era?
While Ken Griffin accepted that AI was making him depressed, he also shared some advice to those who may be concerned about their own careers. The Citadel chief reckoned that learning may become even more important due to AI. He explained, “The success in your career will be defined as to whether or not you will be a lifelong learner or not, and AI will just make this all the more important.”
Ken Griffin’s comments come at a time when we are seeing companies lay off workers across the board. Be it the likes of Meta, Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, thousands of employees have recently lost their jobs. In the past, many prominent tech leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft’s AI chief Mustafa Suleyman have hinted that AI may replace the majority of white collar jobs.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk shared Ken’s clip on X, with the caption, “Where will AI be in 1, 2 or 3 years?” Do note that unlike Griffin, Musk is one of the biggest proponents of AI, and believes that AI may replace all jobs soon, allowing humans to freely grow vegetables.
