Anthropic CEO repeats his AI warning on jobs that had created 'outrage' and sparked debate across technology industry

Anthropic

CEO

Dario Amodei

has doubled down on his stark prediction that artificial intelligence will eliminate entry-level white-collar jobs within five years, reinforcing warnings that previously sparked fierce debate across the technology sector. In a recent BBC Radical interview, Amodei specifically targeted roles in law firms, consulting, administration, and finance as most vulnerable to AI displacement.The CEO emphasized that his timeline of one to five years isn't speculative but reflects current AI capabilities that are "already very good at" entry-level work and "quickly getting better now." He pointed to first-year law associates doing document review as prime examples of repetitive-but-variable tasks that AI can efficiently handle.

Corporate leaders privately view AI as cost-cutting tool

Amodei revealed that many CEOs he speaks with privately view AI as a way to reduce headcount rather than simply augment human workers. "A large fraction of them would like to be able to use it to cut costs to employ less people," he told BBC Radical, contradicting public narratives about AI enhancing rather than replacing human capabilities.

His comments echo earlier statements to Axios in May, where he predicted AI could eliminate up to 50% of entry-level office jobs within five years, potentially driving unemployment to 10-20%. He also warned in March that AI could write 90% of software code within months and "essentially all" of it within a year.

Industry titans clash over AI's job market impact

These predictions have created significant controversy within the tech industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang publicly dismissed Amodei's outlook at VivaTech in Paris, disagreeing with "almost everything" the Anthropic chief said and predicting AI would transform rather than eliminate jobs. OpenAI's Sam Altman similarly argued that society wouldn't allow mass job displacement and that new roles would emerge.However, opinions remain divided. While

Salesforce

CEO Marc Benioff sees no evidence of an imminent jobs crisis, Ford CEO Jim Farley has predicted AI will replace "literally half" of US white-collar workers, aligning more closely with Amodei's warnings.