ANZ Group Chief Executive Nuno Matos has cautioned that artificial intelligence brings unpredictable risks and has not ruled out the possibility of significant job losses at the bank as it adopts the technology.

"At this stage, the risks posed by AI are emerging far more quickly than its developers anticipated," Matos said on Tuesday at the Australian Financial Review Asia Summit in Sydney. "When you see Musk, Dario, and Sam all stating that they believe the pace must slow, that should clearly signal something to us," he added, referring to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Anthropic PBC CEO Dario Amodei, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Over the past few days, all three AI industry titans have warned of the dangers tied to AI's rapid advancement, with some even proposing a slowdown in model development—a stance that drew pushback from President Donald Trump.

"They have indicated that the technology's risks go far beyond their initial projections," Matos said. "We have all dreamed of AI enhancing our lives, boosting our capabilities, and unlocking cures for numerous diseases—that part is true," he noted, but he also cautioned that without "adequate safeguards and constraints," AI could lead to perilous outcomes.

"It will target infrastructure," Matos warned. He further expressed concern that if AI deployment results in widespread unemployment, it could destabilize society, and he did not rule out the prospect of ANZ undertaking mass layoffs due to AI. The Melbourne-based bank employs approximately 40,000 people.