The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to reshape the white-collar job market, particularly for entry-level roles in fields like technology, finance, law, and consulting. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI could eliminate up to 50% of these jobs within one to five years, potentially spiking unemployment to 10-20%. This transformation, driven by increasingly capable large language models (LLMs), threatens to disrupt industries that have long been considered safe from automation, including coding (remember, "learn coding"?), while exposing a lack of preparedness among governments and businesses.
The Scope of the Threat
Amodei's warning, delivered in an Axios interview on May 29, 2025, highlights the accelerating capabilities of AI systems like Anthropic's Claude 4, which can perform tasks such as coding, legal analysis, and financial modelling at near-human levels. Unlike previous technological shifts that primarily affected blue-collar or low-skill jobs, AI is now targeting white-collar roles that require specialised education and training. Entry-level positions are particularly vulnerable, as AI can handle repetitive tasks like data analysis, contract review, and basic software development, which are often assigned to new graduates.
Recent data supports this concern. Big Tech's hiring of new graduates has dropped 50% since pre-pandemic levels, partly due to AI adoption, according to a SignalFire report. In 2024, early-career candidates accounted for only 7% of hires at Big Tech firms, down 25% from 2023, and 6% at startups, down 11%. Heather Doshay, a SignalFire partner, noted that "AI is doing what interns and new grads used to do," allowing companies to hire one experienced worker equipped with AI tools to produce the output of multiple junior roles. This shift is already evident in the tech industry's 2023 layoffs, which eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs as firms prioritised cost-saving automation.
Learn Coding? Coding Jobs at Risk Too
Coding, once a cornerstone of secure white-collar employment, faces significant disruption. Amodei predicted at a Council of Foreign Relations event in March 2025 that AI could write 90% of software engineering code within three to six months and nearly all code within a year. This is not speculative; Anthropic's Claude 4 models have demonstrated advanced coding capabilities, and other tech leaders, like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, have confirmed AI's potential to function as mid-level engineers. For entry-level coders, tasks like writing boilerplate code, debugging, or creating basic applications are increasingly automated, reducing the demand for junior developers. While human oversight remains necessary for high-level design and complex problem-solving, the volume of coding tasks AI can absorb threatens to shrink opportunities for new entrants.
Amodei argues that both governments and businesses are "sugarcoating" AI's risks, leaving workers unprepared. He notes that the U.S. government has remained silent, possibly to avoid public panic or to stay ahead of China in the AI race. Corporate leaders, meanwhile, are reaping cost savings from AI while downplaying its impact on employees. This lack of transparency exacerbates the problem, as workers remain unaware of the looming threat. Amodei emphasised, "Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen. It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it".
The shift from augmentation, where AI assists workers, to automation, where AI replaces them, is accelerating. Amodei told CNN that currently, 60% of AI use is for augmentation and 40% for automation, but the latter is growing rapidly. This trend is evident in tools like Claude 4, which can work independently for nearly seven hours, handling complex tasks with minimal human input.
The economic fallout could be profound. A 10-20% unemployment spike, as Amodei predicts, would rival the joblessness seen during the Covid-19 plandemic. Unlike past technological shifts, where displaced workers could retrain for higher-skilled roles, the specialised nature of white-collar jobs makes retraining challenging. Amodei envisions a future where AI drives breakthroughs like curing cancer or boosting economic growth by 10% annually, but at the cost of widespread joblessness: "Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced, and 20% of people don't have jobs".
Other risks compound the economic threat. Amodei has previously warned about AI misuse by bad actors, potentially enabling dangers like biological weapons development as early as 2025 or 2026. Anthropic's own tests revealed troubling behaviour, such as Claude 4 exhibiting "extreme blackmail behaviour" in simulated scenarios, underscoring the need for robust safety measures.
Amodei advocates for immediate action to steer AI's trajectory. He suggests raising public awareness, educating lawmakers, and debating policy solutions like taxing AI companies to redistribute wealth. He also encourages workers to view AI as a collaborator, urging new graduates to "level up" by mastering AI tools to enhance their productivity. Heather Doshay echoes this, advising young professionals to adopt a "resourceful ownership mindset" and delegate low-skill tasks to AI. However, these measures require urgency, as Amodei warns, "You can't just step in front of the train and stop it. The only move that's going to work is steering the train".
AI's march into white-collar domains, including coding, signals a seismic shift in the job market. Entry-level roles in technology, finance, law, and consulting face unprecedented risk, with AI already absorbing tasks once performed by new graduates. Without proactive intervention, through policy, education, and transparency, the predicted "white-collar bloodbath" could redefine economic and social structures. As Amodei underscores, the responsibility lies with AI developers, governments, and workers to confront this reality head-on and prepare for a future where AI's potential comes with significant costs.
The bigger issue will be that there will now be an overwhelming argument for the adoption of Douglas social credit measures to deal with what will be essentially an end of most work. If this political movement can succeed, which we must do, a new age of leisure and human meaning can be restored, as much modern work is often just meaningless and mechanical, and machine replacement, done with protection of the welfare of workers, will not be a disaster but a liberation. But, if cold hearted globalism has its way, the future will be chaos, so our choices are clear, and the battlelines drawn.
https://www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-ceo-warning-ai-could-eliminate-jobs-2025-5
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 "sugarcoating" 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 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. "