Recently, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic and a leading figure in the field of artificial intelligence, issued a warning that within the next five years, AI could replace about half of entry-level white-collar jobs, causing unemployment rates to soar to 20%. In an interview with Axios, Amodei pointed out that many tech companies and governments often talk about AI in overly optimistic terms, neglecting the potential massive unemployment risks it may bring, especially for low-level positions.
Amodei believes that as artificial intelligence technology develops rapidly, many traditional industries such as technology, finance, law, and consulting may face large-scale layoffs. Although many major tech companies have scaled back hiring, he hopes these companies will face this reality rather than continue to beautify this process. He said, "Most people don't realize that this transformation is coming; it sounds too crazy and unbelievable."
According to reports, the U.S. IT job market will decline for the second consecutive year in 2024, with the number of new graduates being hired already down more than 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, the number of new employees hired by startups has decreased by more than 30%. This series of layoffs are partly due to the rise of AI, where machines are starting to take over some tasks from humans.
Despite this, Amodei mentioned that some companies have realized that machine performance isn't ideal, and public negative sentiment toward robotic work has led them to reconsider hiring humans. For example, companies like Klarna and Duolingo have begun rehiring human employees. Additionally, Amodei's company, Anthropic, is playing a key role in this wave of technological change, with their Claude4AI model approaching human-level programming capabilities.
Amodei emphasized that as creators of technology, they have a responsibility to honestly address future changes. He believes that raising public awareness about which jobs are at risk of being replaced by AI is the first step in addressing this issue. Helping employees understand how to collaborate with AI and improve their skills can also alleviate unemployment problems to some extent. Additionally, he mentioned Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI's concept of universal basic income, which, although it brings many challenges, is worth careful consideration.