The alarming forecast of an AI insider
Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, has issued a chilling warning: Artificial intelligence could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar positions within the next one to five years and cause unemployment to rise to 10-20%. This prediction comes not from a technology critic, but from one of the leading minds in AI development himself – the man behind ChatGPT competitor Claude. In an interview with Axios and later in a conversation with CNN presenter Anderson Cooper, Amodei stated that society and politics are not sufficiently prepared for the upcoming transformation.
Who is Dario Amodei?
He is not a doomsayer, but a respected expert with an impressive career in AI research. He was born in 1983, received his PhD in biophysics from Princeton University and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine. His career in the AI industry began at Google Brain, where he worked as a Senior Research Scientist before joining OpenAI in 2016, where he rose to Vice President of Research.
In 2021, Amodei co-founded Anthropic with his sister Daniela and other former OpenAI employees. As CEO, he leads the development of Claude, one of the most powerful AI language models currently available. Anthropic has established itself as one of the leading AI companies and is backed by investors such as Amazon to the tune of billions. The recently introduced Claude 4 models can process complex tasks autonomously for several hours.
Amodei’s warning therefore comes from someone who not only understands the technology, but is also actively involved in its further development.
The warning in detail: a job crisis of unimagined proportions.
“As producers of this technology, we have a duty and obligation to be honest about what’s coming,” said Amodei in the Axios interview. His forecast in detail:
Speaking to CNN, Amodei emphasized, “We need to sound the alarm” about the rapid development of AI and its potential impact on the job market. What makes his warning particularly worrying is the speed at which this change could occur – not over decades, but within a few years.
Why now? The technological tipping point
Recent advances in AI technology, particularly in large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Claude and Gemini, mark a turning point. These models can now:
- Write code at a level that rivals human programmers,
- perform complex analyses and create reports.
- Review documents and make legal assessments.
- Provide customer service and handle inquiries.
Create autonomous agents that perform complex task sequences independently.
The development of so-called “agents” – AI systems that can act and complete tasks independently – represents a quantum leap. These agents can increasingly take over the work that was previously done by humans – and at a fraction of the cost.
According to Amodei, companies are currently still mainly using AI to support (augment) employees. However, the trend is clearly moving towards automation, i.e. the complete replacement of human labor. “It will happen in a short space of time – in just a few years or less,” he warns.
The industries and professions affected
According to Amodei, entry-level positions in the white-collar sector are particularly at risk. These include:
- Technology sector: junior programmers, support staff
- Financial sector: analysts, clerks
- Legal sector: junior lawyers, paralegals
- Consulting: junior consultants, researchers
- Marketing: content creators, social media managers
Aneesh Raman, Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn, warned in an article in the New York Times that AI is destroying “the lowest rungs of the career ladder” – from junior software developers to young lawyers who used to gain their first experience with document reviews.
What is particularly alarming is that these positions traditionally serve as an entry point into the respective industries. If they are eliminated, it will be more difficult for young people to gain a foothold at all.
A wake-up call for society
Dario Amodei’s warning is a wake-up call to society. As someone at the forefront of AI development, he sees both the enormous potential of this technology and its disruptive powers. His message is clear: we need to act now to shape the future we want.
“You can’t just stand in front of the train and stop it,” says Amodei. “The only move that will work is to steer the train – steer it 10 degrees in a different direction than it would be going.” That can be done. It can be done, but we have to do it now.”
The question is no longer whether AI will change the world of work, but how we as a society will deal with this change. Will we be prepared or will we be overwhelmed by a wave of technological unemployment? The answer depends on how seriously we take warnings like Dario Amodei’s and what measures we take to prepare for the AI revolution.
Sources:
CNN video: “AI company’s CEO issues warning about mass unemployment” – Anderson Cooper 360 (05/29/2025) https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/29/business/video/dario-amodei-ai-future-job-losses-anderson-cooper-digvid
Axios article: “Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath” (28.05.2025) https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic
CNN article: “Why this leading AI CEO is warning the tech could cause mass unemployment” (29.05.2025) https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/tech/ai-anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-unemployment
