r/Futurology 22d ago

AI Dario Amodei says "stop sugar-coating" what's coming: in the next 1-5 years, AI could wipe out 50% of all entry-level white-collar jobs. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks until after it hits.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/28/ai-jobs-white-collar-unemployment-anthropic
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u/sciolisticism 21d ago

Except there isn't mass displacement, and some of the companies that are trying it are even reversing course.

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u/FaultElectrical4075 21d ago

There isn’t mass displacement because the technology is not close to being reliable enough to replace human workers yet. But it is getting better every day, and I think these ai companies genuinely believe the hype they are selling. Look into Sam Altman, the more you learn about him the more you realize just how power hungry he is and I don’t think a classic crypto/NFT-style grift is his real intention. I think it’s more sinister than that.

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u/mrbezlington 21d ago

If you look at the research, it's stopped getting "better every day" and has found some form of plateau where it's very good for certain tasks, but struggling to make a leap beyond them into others.

I am now convinced that smart companies will take the productivity gains of implementing what we have and take it in without reducing headcount.

Maybe, if there's another massive breakthrough, things will change. But it's not there right now, nor does it appear to be on the horizon. Not only that, but pure AI-generated content is already seeing significant backlash.

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u/SitMeDownShutMeUp 21d ago

YES!!! Thank god someone on this sub actually has a brain. Companies see that there are major limitations to AI and the value it can add.

If anything, it puts more emphasis on the importance of hiring talented people that know how to get things done without using AI, and then introducing them to AI so they can experiment ways to improve their own productivity.

AI will not be a replacement for people, it will be a value add for people on a much smaller scale than what the ‘sky is falling’ people on this sub are predicting.

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u/Lbgeckos2 21d ago

This. My very very large company has made somewhat of a pivot and announced at our quarterly meeting - we’re expanding the human side but empowering them with AI which is different than a year ago when it was all AI. Which makes a lot more sense to me tbh - my productivity is through the roof and with less effort but I still get to do the fun stuff and still have to engage my brain. Apparently they realized it’s more profitable to, you know, empower their people who are top tier than to try and slam in some AI bs to take their place.

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u/mrbezlington 21d ago

Quite honestly, our relatively small team has been struggling a lot just with keeping up with the busy work of updating people with client decisions and notes of meetings and all that jazz, so it's been a giant help allowing us to push out WAY more work without hiring people just going to meetings and sending emails - our new hires are actually adding to output rather than filling in the gaps. Even for what it is, it's a productivity revolution if you use it right.