Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing back against predictions of a job apocalypse driven by superintelligence, countering earlier warnings from fellow technology leaders including Anthropic's Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman.

In an essay published on Meta's website on Monday, Zuckerberg challenged the logic of those racing to build a technology they believe could render most human labor obsolete. The essay also reflects a deeper philosophical divide within the AI industry: Meta has released its Llama series of large language models as open-source, freely available to developers worldwide, while Anthropic and OpenAI have pursued more tightly controlled approaches—making Zuckerberg's critique of "extreme concentration of power" as much a business-strategy argument as a policy one.

"I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity's relevance would rush to build that future," Zuckerberg wrote. "The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems inherently problematic. Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened has not led to safe or positive outcomes."

The debate over superintelligence—technology capable of surpassing human cognitive abilities—has sparked concerns ranging from widespread job displacement to more dystopian scenarios of runaway technology. Amodei has previously warned that AI could eliminate up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs, while Altman has co-authored essays forecasting sweeping changes to the global labor market.

An Optimistic Vision of New Work

Zuckerberg, ranked as the world's sixth-richest person with a net worth of $211 billion, views AI as a catalyst for an "abundance of jobs in the future." He argues that people will continue to invent new products and services, along with the roles required to create and deliver them.

He noted that a generation ago, now-commonplace occupations such as app developers, social media creators, electric vehicle technicians, and data center operators barely existed. Going forward, the 42-year-old expects an entirely new set of careers to emerge, including one-person studio designers producing physical goods, world builders constructing virtual experiences, and personal biologists developing individualized treatments.

The "world builder" framing aligns with Meta's long-standing investments in virtual and augmented reality through its Reality Labs division, which has accumulated tens of billions in losses as Zuckerberg bets that immersive computing will be the next major platform after smartphones.

Acknowledging a 'Difficult Period'

Despite his broadly optimistic outlook, Zuckerberg conceded that the transition will likely involve disruption. If automation outpaces workers' ability to acquire new skills, job displacement could produce a "difficult period" for society.

He warned that the impact could be especially severe without greater investment in training workers for career paths less susceptible to automation, particularly in the skilled trades.

"Unlike the concern about knowledge work displacement, there is a shortage of skilled tradespeople like carpenters, electricians, and construction workers to support the demand for infrastructure buildout," he said.

That shortage has been a persistent feature of the US labor market for years, driven by an aging workforce and declining enrollment in vocational training programs—pressures that now intersect with the AI industry's own surging demand for new data centers, energy capacity, and physical infrastructure.

Earlier this year, Meta committed $115 million to America's Workforce Academy, a training program designed to prepare workers for data-center technician roles. The five-week program is offered at no cost, and graduates are guaranteed employment at one of Meta's data-center sites.

Higher Education Under Scrutiny

Zuckerberg, a Harvard dropout, has long maintained that higher education can burden young people with significant debt without adequately preparing them for the workforce.

"It would be one thing if [college] was just kind of like a social experience, but you started off neutral. The fact that it's not preparing you for the jobs that you need and you're kind of starting off in this big [financial] hole then I think that's not good," Zuckerberg said on Theo Von's This Past Weekend podcast last year.

"There's going to have to be a reckoning…and people are going to have to figure out whether that makes sense," he continued. "It's sort of been this taboo thing to say, 'Maybe not everyone needs to go to college,' and because there's a lot of jobs that don't require that…people are probably coming around to that opinion a little more now than maybe like 10 years ago."

US college enrollment has been on a multi-year decline, and scrutiny of the return on investment of a four-year degree has intensified across the political spectrum, lending broader resonance to Zuckerberg's argument even as critics note that tech leaders have a commercial interest in promoting alternative training pathways.

In Zuckerberg's vision, AI could also reduce the need for traditional education by providing universal access to personalized learning.

"Everyone will have a personalized tutor and coach with a PhD in every subject and unlimited patience to help you learn anything you want," Zuckerberg wrote. "Students will have extra help in areas they need it that is currently only available to those whose parents can pay. Adults will have a superintelligent learning assistant that knows exactly how to teach you new job skills, new languages, new hobbies, or anything else you're interested in."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.