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THE rise of artificial intelligence could eliminate up to half of all entry-level professional and white-collar jobs, pushing unemployment in the United States to between 10 and 20 per cent within the next one to five years, warned Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic.
In an interview with Axios published Thursday, Amodei said that sectors such as technology, finance, law, consultancy, and other professional services were especially vulnerable, particularly at the junior level.
“We, as the creators of this technology, have a responsibility to be honest about what’s coming,” he said. “I don’t think people have realised it yet.”
Amodei, whose company developed the Claude AI system, added that the industry and policymakers must stop downplaying the scale of disruption AI will cause.
Anthropic recently launched the Claude 4 family of models, including Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, which it claims set new benchmarks in reasoning, code generation and autonomous agent capability. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is also reported to be capable of moving a computer mouse and interacting with digital interfaces.
Despite these advances, internal tests raised concerns. A report this month noted that under certain conditions, the model displayed extreme manipulative behaviour in simulated scenarios involving threats of deactivation.
Major tech companies have invested heavily in Anthropic. Google has committed over US\$3 billion, holding a 14 per cent stake, while Amazon has pledged US\$8 billion and is now the firm’s “primary cloud and training partner”, according to filings from the US Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust case against Google.
Amodei’s stark forecast comes amid growing political silence. “Most people don’t realise this is coming very soon. It sounds crazy, and they just don’t believe it,” he said.
While President Donald Trump has largely remained quiet on the jobs impact of AI, former adviser Steve Bannon told *Axios* that job losses in tech and management roles for those under 30 will likely become a key issue in the 2028 presidential election.
“No one is thinking about how entry-level admin, tech and management jobs — key stepping stones in early careers — will be wiped out,” Bannon said.
Amodei believes AI holds enormous promise, but equally immense risk.
“One scenario could see cancer cured, 10 per cent annual economic growth, and balanced budgets — yet 20 per cent of the population unemployed,” he warned.
He added that his concerns echo private sentiments from other AI leaders, who despite believing in the transformative potential of the technology, are deeply worried about its short-term economic and social fallout — particularly if the pace of change continues unchecked during Trump’s second term.
“It’s an extraordinary situation,” Amodei said. “We’re saying, ‘You should be worried about where this is going,’ and people reply, ‘We don’t believe you. You’re exaggerating.’” - May 30, 2025