Leigh explains that AI can make junior workers much more productive, but the same technology may also reduce the number of junior positions firms need, potentially lowering the wage premium for experience and education.

The core of his concern is ownership. He says a handful of AI companies could become "toll collectors" for the rest of the economy, meaning they would capture a large share of the extra profit generated by AI.

When AI providers have strong market power, they can keep most of the surplus and pass only a small part on to businesses that use the technology. This concentration of gains could widen the gap between those who own productive capital and those who earn wages.

A Senate Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence will table its interim findings on AI guardrails later this week, a step that could shape how the government manages the balance between productivity gains and inequality.