A white-collar bloodbath

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: artificial intelligence could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs—and spike unemployment to 10-20 percent in the next one to five years. Amodei said AI companies and the 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. Amodei, 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. Amodei is hardly hopeless. He sees a variety of ways to mitigate the worst scenarios, including speeding up awareness, understanding, and transparency when it comes to AI.