What will be left for us to work on?

Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton researcher, delivered a keynote at ICML 2026 arguing that while AI capabilities will continue advancing, jobs will fundamentally transform rather than disappear, and society should focus on adapting to new forms of work rather than fearing total automation. He emphasizes that without a major discontinuity like recursive self-improvement, AI should be viewed as a "normal technology," and proposes a future of human-AI "co-superintelligence" where humans and AI work together. Narayanan stresses that how the AI community responds to this disruption matters globally, as it will influence public perception and policy around artificial intelligence.