While legacy automaker Ford (F) may not be one of the first companies you think of when considering the future of artificial intelligence (AI), it may be in line to be impacted by it all the same. In fact, while speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Ford CEO Jim Farley revealed a grim projection: AI is about to take the jobs of half the white-collar workers in the United States. Investors seemed oddly pleased by this, and sent shares up fractionally in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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Farley noted that AI will “…replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.” He further noted, “AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.” Farley was not alone in this projection, either; Amazon (AMZN) recently noted plans for layoffs itself as AI stepped into the field, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO Marianne Lake looked for operations headcount to drop 10% over the next several years.
Farley’s projections were roughly in line with those of Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei, who looked for half of all entry-level jobs to vanish outright over the next five years, which would bring unemployment in the United States to roughly as high as 20%. Amodei also demanded that governments stop “sugarcoating” the situation.
The Big Corvette Race
On a thankfully lighter note–though not one that ended well for Ford–Ford recently took on General Motors (GM) prized sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette. Edmunds recently set up the event on what it calls its U-Drags series, and the Corvette took on the Mustang Dark Horse in a head-to-head battle. The Corvette, considered a “borderline supercar,” was also considered “slightly down on power” against the 5.0-liter V8 engine contained within the Mustang.
How did it turn out? Not at all well for Ford. The Corvette delivered the best 0-60 speed, reaching speed at 3.4 seconds as opposed to the Mustang’s 4.5 seconds. The quarter-mile also proved a win for the Corvette at 11.7 seconds against the Mustang’s 12.7 seconds. Even cornering proved a win for the Corvette, as it pulled 1.23 G on a corner against the Mustang’s 1.22 G.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on two Buys, 12 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 8.33% loss in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $9.71 per share implies 17.64% downside risk.
