Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
www.axios.com /2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic
Behind the Curtain: A white-collar bloodbath
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen 13-16 minutes 5/28/2025
Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:
- AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
- Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop "sugar-coating" what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.
Why it matters: Amodei , 42, who's building the very technology he predicts could reorder society overnight, said he's speaking out in hopes of jarring government and fellow AI companies into preparing — and protecting — the nation.
Few are paying attention. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks posed by the possible job apocalypse — until after it hits.
- "Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen," Amodei told us. "It sounds crazy, and people just don't believe it."
The big picture: President Trump has been quiet on the job risks from AI. But Steve Bannon — a top official in Trump's first term, whose "War Room" is one of the most powerful MAGA podcasts — says AI job-killing, which gets virtually no attention now, will be a major issue in the 2028 presidential campaign.
- "I don't think anyone is taking into consideration how administrative, managerial and tech jobs for people under 30 — entry-level jobs that are so important in your 20s — are going to be eviscerated," Bannon told us.
Amodei — who had just rolled out the latest versions of his own AI, which can code at near-human levels — said the technology holds unimaginable possibilities to unleash mass good and bad at scale:
- "Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don't have jobs." That's one very possible scenario rattling in his mind as AI power expands exponentially.
The backstory: Amodei agreed to go on the record with a deep concern that other leading AI executives have told us privately. Even those who are optimistic AI will unleash unthinkable cures and unimaginable economic growth fear dangerous short-term pain — and a possible job bloodbath during Trump's term.
- "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," Amodei told us. "I don't think this is on people's radar."
- "It's a very strange set of dynamics," he added, "where we're saying: 'You should be worried about where the technology we're building is going.'" Critics reply: "We don't believe you. You're just hyping it up." He says the skeptics should ask themselves: "Well, what if they're right?"
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Is anyone going to try and stop this?
Do you want to stop that?
Are you going to pay every unemployed person a living universal basic wage , indefinitely?
How many of these robots that are doing all the work and accruing all the profit is Amodei going to own ?
If the budget is balanced, the economy is growing 10% and there's genuinely no jobs for anyone, than something like that becomes feasible.
If you believe this is happening, you must be desperate for Trump to speed up deportations and stop all low skilled immigrants from entering the country.
I didnt say its possible, one of the people who controls the AI says its not only possible, its going to happen.
Stop what?
AI is basically an educated search engine and be assigned to fulfil robotic tasks. It is capable of learning more and refining its knowledge base. It's produced by humans and be controlled by them. It can be switched off or ignored.