Latest news with #SignalFire
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Anthropic CEO makes 'Dooms Day' prediction on AI: Mass elimination of jobs across….
Representational Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that artificial intelligence could eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years, potentially driving US unemployment to 20%. The stark prediction comes as AI technology rapidly advances, with sectors including technology, finance, law, and consulting facing the greatest disruption. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei told Axios in an interview published Wednesday. The 42-year-old CEO emphasized that most people remain unaware of the impending transformation, calling it a reality that "sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it." Tech industry already feeling the impact of AI Recent data supports Amodei's concerns, with Big Tech hiring of new graduates dropping 50% since pre-pandemic levels, according to venture capital firm SignalFire. The report attributes this decline partly to AI adoption, as companies prioritize experienced workers who can leverage AI tools effectively. "AI is doing what interns and new grads used to do," explained Heather Doshay, a SignalFire partner. "Now, you can hire one experienced worker, equip them with AI tooling, and they can produce the output of the junior worker on top of their own." Entry-level candidates now account for just 7% of total hires at Big Tech firms in 2024, down 25% from the previous year. At startups, that figure drops to 6%. Government and tech industry 'sugarcoating' risks, says Anthropic CEO Amodei criticized both government officials and business leaders for downplaying the scale of disruption ahead. He argued that the US government remains quiet about AI's job displacement potential, fearing worker panic or falling behind China in the AI race. The Anthropic CEO acknowledged the irony of his position—simultaneously building and selling AI products while warning about their risks. He envisions a future where "cancer is cured, the economy grows 10% a year, the budget is balanced—and 20% of people don't have jobs." Amodei urged immediate action to prepare for this transformation, emphasizing that the technology cannot be stopped but can be steered with proper planning and policy intervention.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
AI will allow software engineers to be more creative and reach the 'magical flow state' easier, GitHub CEO says
AI won't fundamentally change what it means to be a software engineer, said GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke — it'll just allow them to be more creative. "My creativity during the coding process is limited by the time that I have available and the energy that I have — the amount of distraction I get," he said in a YouTube interview with newsletter author Azeem Azhar."Oftentimes, developers describe that as the magical flow state. You're almost in the zone of building something, and as long as nobody distracts you, you really feel like you're getting a lot of things done." Assistance from AI agents, Dohmke said, will make achieving and retaining that "flow state" that much easier. "Then the moment comes where you finish the feature or get a distraction, and now you're out of the zone and have to find it back later," he said. "I think Copilot and agent mode keep you in that zone of creativity and let you really focus." In Dohmke's mind, the process of coding is similar to "what an artist does" — part production, part creativity. With AI improving at repetitive, basic tasks, its eventual ability to take over the former will leave room for engineers to focus more heavily on the latter. "A lot of the time, the developer is spending every day … actually on that production side of the creative process," Dohmke said. "Often, that is the more boring piece for many developers. That's where automation is great, because I actually want to spend more time in the creative part of it — designing, ultimately, what I'm shipping to my customers." Concerns over AI's potential to replace or impact coding jobs abound, with a recent report by VC firm SignalFire suggesting it's already contributing to the shrinking of entry-level tech opportunities for new grads. However, Dohmke said AI doesn't represent that big a departure from the existing coding process. Ultimately, he believes it's just another tool. "Today, most engineers actually already start on code written by others," he said. "They use open-source libraries, they use open-source operating systems, they have an editor that they're not building themselves, and a debugger, and a compiler." Even with the help of an AI assistant, engineers still need to understand the fundamental processes behind their work, Dohmke said — AI simply changes the way they go about completing it. "We're already composing different pieces into software, and we're moving up the abstraction," he said. "AI will help us to achieve that, and then we will review the work of the AI to make sure it's secure, and compliant, and runs efficiently." Dohmke did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider. At its core, Dohmke doesn't believe that what it means to be a software engineer will really change. "I think you know the developer will do mostly what engineers actually do, and how they define themselves, which is they're solving problems," he said. "They're implementing ideas."
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Anthropic CEO says AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs
After spending the day promoting his company's AI technology at a developer conference, Anthropic's CEO issued a warning: AI may eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Dario Amodei told Axios in an interview published Wednesday. "I don't think this is on people's radar." The 42-year-old CEO added that unemployment could spike between 10% and 20% in the next five years. He told Axios he wanted to share his concerns to get the government and other AI companies to prepare the country for what's to come. "Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei said. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it." Amodei said the development of large language models is advancing rapidly, and they're becoming capable of matching and exceeding human performance. He said the US government has remained quiet about the issue, fearing workers would panic or the country could fall behind China in the AI race. Meanwhile, business leaders are seeing savings from AI while most workers remain unaware of the changes that are evolving, Amodei said. He added that AI companies and the government need to stop "sugarcoating" the risks of mass job elimination in fields including technology, finance, law, and consulting. He said entry-level jobs are especially at risk. Amodei's comments come as Big Tech firms' hiring of new grads dropped about 50% from pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report by the venture capital firm SignalFire. The report said that's due in part to AI adoption. A round of brutal layoffs swept the tech industry in 2023, with hundreds of thousands of jobs eliminated as companies looked to slash costs. While SignalFire's report said hiring for mid and senior-level roles saw an uptick in 2024, entry-level positions never quite bounced back. In 2024, early-career candidates accounted for 7% of total hires at Big Tech firms, down by 25% from 2023, the report said. At startups, that number is just 6%, down by 11% from the year prior. SignalFire's findings suggest that tech companies are prioritizing hiring more seasoned professionals and often filling posted junior roles with senior candidates. Heather Doshay, a partner who leads people and recruiting programs at SignalFire, told Business Insider that "AI is doing what interns and new grads used to do." "Now, you can hire one experienced worker, equip them with AI tooling, and they can produce the output of the junior worker on top of their own — without the overhead," Doshay said. AI can't entirely account for the sudden shrinkage in early-career prospects. The report also said that negative perceptions of Gen Z employees and tighter budgets across the industry are contributing to tech's apparent reluctance to hire new grads. "AI isn't stealing job categories outright — it's absorbing the lowest-skill tasks," Doshay said. "That shifts the burden to universities, boot camps, and candidates to level up faster." To adapt to the rapidly changing times, she suggests new grads think of AI as a collaborator, rather than a competitor. "Level up your capabilities to operate like someone more experienced by embracing a resourceful ownership mindset and delegating to AI," Doshay said. "There's so much available on the internet to be self-taught, and you should be sponging it up." Amodei's chilling message comes after the company recently revealed that its chatbot Claude Opus 4 exhibited "extreme blackmail behavior" after gaining access to fictional emails that said it would be shut down. While the company was transparent with the public about the results, it still released the next version of the chatbot. It's not the first time Amodei has warned the public about the risks of AI. On an episode of The New York Times' "Hard Fork" podcast in February, the CEO said the possibility of "misuse" by bad actors could threaten millions of lives. He said the risk could come as early as "2025 or 2026," though he didn't know exactly when it would present "real risk." Anthropic has emphasized the importance of third-party safety assessments and regularly shares the risks uncovered by its red-teaming efforts. Other companies have taken similar steps, relying on third-party evaluations to test their AI systems. OpenAI, for example, says on its website that its API and ChatGPT business products undergo routine third-party testing to "identify security weaknesses before they can be exploited by malicious actors." Amodei acknowledged to Axios the irony of the situation — as he shares the risks of AI, he's simultaneously building and selling the products he's warning about. But he said the people who are most involved in building AI have an obligation to be up front about its direction. "It's a very strange set of dynamics, where we're saying: 'You should be worried about where the technology we're building is going,'" he said.
TechCrunch
3 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Security startup Horizon3.ai is raising $100M in new round
a cybersecurity startup that provides tools like autonomous penetration testing, is seeking to raise $100 million in a new funding round and has locked down at least $73 million, the company revealed in an SEC filing this week. NEA led the round, according to two people familiar with the deal. One person said that the startup is believed to be valued upward of $750 million, although TechCrunch couldn't verify whether that valuation is pre- or post-money. Another person believes the company did (or will) sell the whole $100 million, and added that the company is generating about $30 million in annual recurring revenue. Neither Horizon, nor NEA responded to TechCrunch's requests for comment. With this deal, becomes NEA's second major cybersecurity startup investment in less than a month, following Veza's $108 million funding round at an $800 million valuation announced in April. In August 2023, raised $40 million in a Series C round led by Craft Ventures with participation from SignalFire. That round brought the startup's total fundraising to $78.5 million and was aimed to expand its R&D, channel presence, and team of engineers, co-founder CEO Snehal Antani told TechCrunch at the time. Founded in 2019, comprises a team of former U.S. Special Operations cyber operators, entrepreneurs, and cybersecurity experts. Before launching the startup, Antani served as CTO at Splunk and led teams within the U.S. Military's Joint Special Operations Command. With all things AI being deployed across the tech world, AI-powered automated attacks are also on the rise. The San Francisco-based startup helps protect against such attacks with its autonomous threat detection tools. Earlier this month, received FedRAMP authorization, enabling it to sell its wares to federal agencies. It also announced in February that it saw 101% year-on-year revenue growth and exceeding 150% of its Q4 pipeline targets, without sharing specific numbers.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Anthropic CEO says AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said AI could soon eliminate 50% of entry-level office jobs. The AI CEO said that companies and the government are "sugar coating" the risks of AI. Recent data shows Big Tech hiring of new grads has dropped 50% since pre-pandemic, partly due to AI. After spending the day promoting his company's AI technology at a developer's conference, Anthropic CEO issued a warning: AI may eliminate 50% of entry level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Dario Amodei told Axios in an interview published Wednesday. "I don't think this is on people's radar." The 42-year-old CEO added that unemployment could spike between 10% and 20% in the next one to five years. He told Axios he wanted to share his concerns to get the government and other AI companies to prepare the country for what's to come. "Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei said. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it." Amodei said his concerns come from the rapid advancement of large language models that are increasingly capable of matching and exceeding human performance. He added that as models continue to develop, the US government has remained largely quiet out of concern of instilling fear among workers or falling behind China in the AI race. Meanwhile, business leaders are seeing savings from AI while most workers remain unaware of the changes that are evolving, Amodei said. He added that AI companies and the government need to stop "sugar coating" the risks of mass job elimination in fields including technology, finance, law, and consulting. He said entry-level jobs are especially at risk. Amodei's comments also come as Big Tech firms' hiring of new grads dropped 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report by venture capital firm SignalFire. The report said it's at least partially due to AI. A round of brutal layoffs swept wholesale across the industry in 2023, with hundreds of thousands of jobs eliminated as companies slashed costs. While SignalFire's report said hiring for mid and senior-level roles saw an uptick in 2024, entry-level positions never quite bounced back. In 2024, early-career candidates accounted for 7% of total hires at Big Tech firms, down by 25% from 2023, the report said. At startups, that number is just 6%, down by 11% from the year prior. SignalFire's findings suggest that tech companies are prioritizing hiring more seasoned professionals, and often filling posted junior roles with senior candidates. Heather Doshay, a partner leading the people and recruiting programs at SignalFire told Business Insider that "AI is doing what interns and new grads used to do." "Now, you can hire one experienced worker, equip them with AI tooling, and they can produce the output of the junior worker on top of their own — without the overhead," Doshay said. AI can't entirely account for the sudden shrinkage in early-career prospects. According to the report, negative perceptions of Gen Z employees and tighter budgets across the industry — particularly the latter — are also contributing to tech's apparent reluctance to onboard new grads. "AI isn't stealing job categories outright — it's absorbing the lowest-skill tasks," Doshay said. "That shifts the burden to universities, bootcamps, and candidates to level up faster." To adapt to the rapidly changing times, she suggests new grads think of AI as a collaborator, rather than a competitor. "Level up your capabilities to operate like someone more experienced by embracing a resourceful ownership mindset and delegating to AI," Doshay said. "There's so much available on the internet to be self-taught, and you should be sponging it up." The CEO's chilling message comes after the company recently revealed that its chatbot Claude Opus 4 portrayed "extreme blackmail behavior" after gaining access to fictional emails that said it would be shut down. While the company was transparent with the public about it, it still released the next version of the chatbot. It's not the first time Amodei has warned the public about the risks of AI. On an episode of the New York Times' "Hard Fork" podcast in February, the CEO said the possibility of "misuse" by bad actors could threaten millions of lives. He said the risk could come as early as "2025 or 2026," though he didn't know exactly when it would present "real risk." Anthropic has emphasized the importance of third-party safety assessments and regularly shares the risks uncovered by its red-teaming efforts. Other companies have taken similar steps, relying on third-party evaluations to test their AI systems. OpenAI, for example, says on its website that its API and ChatGPT business products undergo routine third-party testing to "identify security weaknesses before they can be exploited by malicious actors." Amodei acknowledged to Axios the irony of the situation — as he shares the risks of AI, he's simultaneously building and selling the products he's warning about. But he said the people who are most involved in building AI have an obligation to be upfront about its direction. "It's a very strange set of dynamics, where we're saying: 'You should be worried about where the technology we're building is going,'" he said. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
