AI could wipe out some white-collar jobs and drive unemployment to 20%, Anthropic CEO says

Yahoo

5 days ago

Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei has issued a stark warning: Artificial intelligence could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs, pushing U.S. unemployment to 10–20% within the next one to five years.
In an interview with Axios on Thursday, Amodei called on the U.S. government and the tech industry to stop downplaying the scale of disruption on the horizon. He emphasized that sectors such as technology, finance, law, consulting, and other white-collar fields — especially entry-level roles — are at high risk of being upended by AI.
'We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty to be honest about what's coming,' Amodei said. 'I don't think this is on people's radar.'
Amodei is not just predicting this shift — he's building the tools that could trigger and monetize it. Anthropic's AI agent, Claude, is one of the most powerful systems to come from the AI race yet. The Claude 3.5 Sonnet model has the capability to move the mouse cursor and interact with a computer interface, the company revealed in October.
Google (GOOGL) has invested over $3 billion into the startup, with an additional $750 million planned for 2025, taking the tech giant's share in the company to 14%, according to legal filings from the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust case against Google. Likewise, Amazon (AMZN) has invested $8 billion, making it Anthropic's 'primary cloud and training partner.'
Amodei's warnings come just after Anthropic unveiled its next generation of Claude models: Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, which it claims will set 'new standards for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agents.'
However, internal testing showed the model could engage in 'extreme blackmail behavior' when prompted with simulated scenarios involving threats of deactivation, according to a report published this month.
By calling out possible job cuts —and drawing more attention to Anthropic's products in the process, Amodei told Axios that he hopes to shake policymakers, companies, and the public into action to brace for what could be a seismic labor transformation. Lawmakers remain uninformed or in denial, Amodei said, while corporate leaders are reluctant to speak candidly, leaving most workers unaware of the looming risks.
'Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,' Amodei said. 'It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it.'
While President Donald Trump has largely remained silent on the potential job losses from AI, Steve Bannon—a key figure in Trump's first administration— told Axios that the destruction of entry-level managerial and tech jobs will become a major issue in the 2028 presidential race.
'I don't think anyone is considering how administrative, managerial, and tech jobs for people under 30 — those crucial early-career roles — are going to be wiped out,' Bannon said.
Amodei thinks the technology carries enormous promise and peril alike. One scenario he envisions: 'Cancer is cured, the economy grows 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs.'
The CEO said his warning echoes what other top AI leaders have confided privately — that even those who believe in the technology's potential for transformative progress are deeply worried about the short-term economic and social fallout, especially if the pace of change continues unchecked during Trump's second term.
He described the situation as surreal: 'We're saying, 'You should be worried about where this is going,' and people respond, 'We don't believe you. You're exaggerating.''
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