(Credit: FABRICE COFFRINI / Contributor / AFP via Getty Images)
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is confident AI will be a bloodbath for white-collar jobs, and warns that society is not acknowledging this reality.
AI could wipe out up to 50% of all entry-level jobs while spiking unemployment to 10-20% in as little as one to five years, he says. Unemployment is 4.2% in the US as of April 2025.
"We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei tells Axios. "I don't think this is on people's radar."
Anthropic makes the popular Claude chatbot. Last week it released its fourth-generation AI models with superior coding skills that potentially could automate entry-level software engineering roles, or at least part of them.
In another interview with Fox News, Amodei said AI will also automate jobs in finance, consulting, and tech, which could alter the job market for college graduates, young professionals, and mid-career changers alike.
"I've been working on AI for 10 years, and the thing I've noticed most about it is how fast it's making progress. Two years ago it was at the level of a smart high school student, now it's at the level of a smart college student and reaching beyond [that]," Amodei says.
The job apocalypse is already beginning to unfold, he adds, and corporate leaders are privately preparing for it as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft improve their AI tools.
"This message hasn't been getting out to ordinary people, to our legislators," he tells Fox News. "I felt I needed to speak up on the record. We can prevent this, but we need to act now." He suggests starting with properly measuring the impact of AI, and using that data to shape policies.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly warned Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) privately that AI could automate 70% of jobs, according to PYMNTS. In a public blog post, he admitted, "the long-term changes to our society and economy will be huge. We will find new things to do...but they may not look very much like the jobs of today."
The wholesale job loss will feel like it happens overnight, Amodei says, reordering society en masse as savings-focused business leaders lay off workers and backfill jobs with AI agents.
(Job loss is difficult, even for an AI, it turns out. When an engineer threatened to take Claude 4 offline, it blackmailed him with knowledge of an extramarital affair.)
Meanwhile, the US government remains focused on preventing China from becoming an AI superpower. Amodei agrees that's a threat, but says it's not an excuse for failing to warn the public about the effects of the technology or implementing smart regulations. He calls out the government, as well as his fellow AI companies, for "sugar-coating" what's to come.
He's right that the Trump administration is focused on assuaging fears about AI, promoting its adoption and slashing regulations. The pending "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" allocates billions of dollars to boost AI adoption across the government and puts in place a surprising 10-year moratorium on state-level regulations. The idea behind the extended pause is to prevent a patchwork of regulations that make it difficult for tech companies to implement their products nationwide. The bill narrowly passed the House and is now with the Senate.
Amodei, who stands to profit off this AI apocalypse, says his conflict of interest doesn't mean he's wrong. He supports AI regulation, like California's AI Safety Bill, although Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately vetoed it. To the skeptics who say AI leaders who warn of doomsday scenarios are just hyping up their own technology, Amodei says they should ask themselves: "Well, what if they're right?"