Chief executives from major companies are increasingly vocal about the potential for artificial intelligence to eliminate a significant number of white-collar jobs. This marks a shift from private discussions to public warnings about the technology’s impact on the workforce.
Ford Motor CEO Jim Farley stated at the Aspen Ideas Festival that AI could replace “literally half of all white-collar workers.” Similarly, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that half of all entry-level jobs could disappear within five years, potentially raising U.S. unemployment to between 10% and 20%. Other executives have echoed these concerns. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote to employees that he expects a smaller corporate workforce in the future, while Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke told managers not to hire for roles that could be performed by AI.
A call for evidence
Not all tech leaders agree with these stark predictions. Brad Lightcap, the chief operating officer of OpenAI, has repeatedly stated that there is no current evidence of “wholesale replacing entry-level jobs.” In an interview on the “Hard Fork” podcast, he said he hoped that predictions like Amodei’s would take an “evidence-based approach.”
Other corporate leaders express a more cautious view. IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna noted that while AI replaced several hundred HR roles at his company, it also hired more programmers and salespeople. Similarly, AT&T’s CFO Pascal Desroches pointed out that past technological revolutions have often created new kinds of jobs.
Anthropic launches research program
In response to the growing concerns, AI company Anthropic is launching the Anthropic Economic Futures Program. The initiative aims to fund research into the economic consequences of AI and encourage new policy proposals.
The program plans to:
- Award 20 to 50 global research grants of up to $50,000 each.
- Provide researchers with free access to Anthropic’s AI models.
- Host conferences in Washington, D.C., and Europe to discuss findings.
Sarah Heck, Anthropic’s head of policy programs, said the goal is to “catalyze more people to be thinking about this” and to study AI’s effects on GDP, technology adoption, and the labor market. The company, founded by former OpenAI employees with a focus on AI safety, seeks to fund researchers from diverse ideological backgrounds to keep the effort “politically agnostic.”
Sources: Wall Street Journal, Semafor