The Fourcast UK unemployment soars: is AI already taking our jobs?
Feb 17, 2026
Andrea Miotti, CEO of Control AI, warns about long-term risks and urges regulation of powerful AI. Helia Ebrahimi, Channel 4 Economics Correspondent, explains rising UK unemployment and youth job losses. They discuss which white-collar and service roles AI is already affecting, the limits of current adoption, policy choices for governments and the risks of unchecked advanced AI.
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Big Firms Are Shrinking Graduate Intake
- Major professional services firms are scaling back hiring commitments as AI and cost pressures reshape demand.
- Reductions in graduate intake risk hollowing future senior talent pools.
Historical Analogy: Humans As The Horses
- Experts warn AI could replace humans at many tasks, likening people to horses displaced by cars.
- Prominent scientists and some CEOs publicly raise existential and economic risk concerns.
Regulate Rather Than Reject AI
- Reject a binary choice of stopping all AI; instead regulate dangerous paths like superintelligence.
- Preserve beneficial AI tools while banning systems that could remove human control.