AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next 5 years: AI company CEO

Artificial intelligence could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years, the CEO of American AI research company Anthropic, Dario Amodei has warned.

In a statement to Axios published on Thursday, Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic and is a former OpenAI executive, said he hopes to jolt the US government and fellow developers into preparing for the consequences of rapid automation. AI could spike unemployment in the US to 10-20% in the next one to five years, he warned.

AI development companies are already working on systems that could soon replace workers in technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, particularly entry-level positions, Amodei claimed.

The public and politicians are still “unaware” that a major shift is about to happen and insisted that companies and officials needed to stop “sugar-coating” what lies ahead, particularly for younger workers.

Earlier this month, a report by the Linux Foundation, commissioned by Meta, found that open source AI is already transforming the economy by boosting efficiency, innovation, cost savings, and revenue gains.

However, Amodei has expressed concern that people could continue to stay ignorant of the threat of being replaced by AI, especially if the US government chooses to stay silent on the issue out of fear of spooking workers or falling behind China.

Soon, “almost overnight,” business leaders will see savings in replacing humans with AI and implement a change “en masse.” They will stop opening new jobs or backfilling existing ones, and replace human workers with automated alternatives, Amodei claimed.

He has proposed several mitigation strategies, including a special index to track AI’s impact across occupations, and briefings for lawmakers to raise awareness. He also suggested a “token tax” — a system where a percentage of AI-generated revenue would be redistributed by the government.

Amodei’s warning comes as a number of major companies have recently started laying off a considerable amount of workers, which some believe is being done in anticipation of major shifts due to AI.

Earlier this month, Microsoft fired some 6,000 workers, mostly engineers, despite reporting strong sales and profits. Walmart has cut 1,500 corporate jobs to “simplify operations” while Crowdstrike – a Texas based cybersecurity company – has slashed 500 positions citing “a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry.”