Anthropic cofounders Dario Amodei and Jack Clark sounded the alarm regarding artificial intelligence possibly replacing human jobs during an Axios event on Wednesday. CEO Amodei said that as with most things, “when an exponential is moving very quickly, you can’t be sure.”
“I think it is likely enough to happen that we felt there was a need to warn the world about it and to speak honestly,” he added. Meanwhile Clark, who is the head of policy, said a policy response was needed due to “the scale of disruption we expect in the next five years.”
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Amodei told Axios in May that he thinks AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years. He also predicted that the unemployment rate could jump to somewhere between 10% and 20% in that timeframe. He told the BBC earlier this month that the AI-induced entry-level job losses could occur in fields like law, finance, and consulting. He also told Axios that he thinks there’s a 25% chance the AI will go “really, really badly,” and that there’s a “75% chance that things go really, really well.”
There have been concerns over AI replacing human jobs since the generative AI boom. Artificial intelligence is expected to fundamentally transform the global workforce by 2050, according to reports from PwC, McKinsey, and the World Economic Forum. Estimates suggest that up to 60% of current jobs will require significant adaptation due to AI. Automation and intelligent systems will become an integral part of the workplace.
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Certain jobs are already being automated, though they haven’t been completely replaced by AI for the most part. Recently, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said his company’s AI browser Comet, will automate two essential roles every workplace depends on — recruiters and administrative assistants. Srinivas discussed how Comet’s built-in AI agent can access applications like Gmail, LinkedIn, and Google Calendar to completely transform knowledge work, on The Verge’s decoder podcast, saying “a recruiter’s work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,” and that the browser can also do the work of multiple administrative assistants.
Bloomberg’s research arm said in January that banks around the world will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as they implement AI. AI has been associated with the increased number of layoffs in many companies, particularly within the tech industry. CBS reports that new labor data shows layoffs across the U.S. have surged to their highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy in 2020. However, some have taken a more optimistic outlook, expecting humans and AI to be able to work beside each other in harmony.
