A new MIT study challenges the dominant narrative of instant AI job destruction by finding evidence consistent with slower, “rising tide” disruption across many tasks simultaneously. Researchers at MIT FutureTech examined more than 17,000 evaluations of large language model outputs across over 3,000 tasks mapped to U.S. Department of Labor O*NET categories. The work, titled “Crashing Waves vs. Rising Tides,” suggests AI’s impact on labor markets may be serious and accelerating—without necessarily arriving as an abrupt overnight transformation for specific job sets. The findings directly respond to growing workforce anxiety and headline claims that disruption is imminent. The research arrives as U.S. labor sentiment data points to fear of obsolescence—FOBO—where workers worry not only about losing jobs, but about becoming irrelevant. The article cites related forecasts from figures including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman, as well as U.S. Sen. Mark Warner’s remarks about leaders pulling back predictions amid economic disruption. For higher education, the study strengthens the case for updating curriculum and career services around task-level adaptation rather than preparing students for a single sudden pivot in employability.