AI job predictions become corporate America’s newest competitive sport

In late Could, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei appeared to kick open the door on a delicate matter, warning that half of entry-level jobs may vanish inside 5 years due to AI and push U.S. unemployment as much as 20%. However Amodei is much from alone in sharing aloud that he foresees a workforce massacre. A brand new WSJ story highlights how different CEOs are additionally issuing dire predictions about AI’s job impression, turning employment doom into one thing of a aggressive sport.

A number of of those predictions got here earlier than Amodei’s feedback. For instance, at JPMorgan’s annual investor day earlier in Could, its client banking chief Marianne Lake projected AI would “allow” a ten% workforce discount. However they’ve been coming quick, and rising extra stark, ever since. In a word final month, Amazon’s Andy Jassy warned workers to count on a smaller workforce as a result of “once-in-a-lifetime” technological shift that’s afoot. ThredUp’s CEO mentioned at a convention final month that AI will destroy “far more jobs than the typical particular person thinks.” To not be outdone, Ford’s Jim Farley delivered maybe probably the most sweeping declare but, saying final week that AI will “actually substitute half of all white-collar employees within the U.S.”

It’s a dramatic shift from executives’ earlier cautious public statements about job displacement, notes the Journal. Certainly, the outlet notes that whereas some tech leaders — together with from highly effective AI corporations — have proposed that fears are overblown, the rising string of warnings suggests huge restructurings are coming, whether or not individuals are prepared for them or not.