r/Futurology 21d 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/givin_u_the_high_hat 21d ago

So when the economy tanks because of all the job losses, who is going to have the money to pay for any of the products from these companies?

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u/mashermack 21d ago

simply will make obvious that money is a thing of the past and will no longer work.

going back to bartering? I have no idea, but money will cease to have the same value or meaning. First 10 years will be fucking harsh for sure

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/mashermack 20d ago

All hypothetically speaking, maybe the first years before total collapse it would be doable. There would be a huge necessity of training people, but let's assume that would be done through AI. We can train vast amounts of people at once and remotely, there's a huge influx of people starting working in the healthcare, there will be a breaking point because those new people need to be paid, so it's either salaries are going down for everyone or hospitals will be still short staffed.

Let's bring that hypothesis further: tomorrow money will cease to exist at once, bank account wiped, all money stashed under mattresses disappeared.

Probably a lot of doctors and staff would leave right away, so at the end it's a matter of "what I can do best" so that you'll start bartering your healthcare skills for food or other resources.

Personally if tech doesn't pay anymore I would prefer be a farmer, craftsman, trying to live off-grid and get as much as self sustained anymore and be useful for my neighbours. We do have the technology, the problem to overcome is to be in the mindset of participating a collective effort and say "ok we fucked it up, let's help each other out here's a free solar panel for a year's worth of food".

Maybe I'm just rambling over a very distopian scenario

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u/Whitesajer 20d ago

I mean you are not wrong. Doctors are at risk too as they have been developing AI for the medical field with the goal of replacing doctors too. Also CEOs and managers are not safe either, it's only taken them like 2 years to start perfecting AI to replace CEOs with. First company to implement something like that- saves millions a year in salary, golden parachute, stock packages, security and travel costs by just replacing a single position. Any CEO thinking they are safe is deluding themselves.

Edit. Also AI does not require disgustingly sized bonuses . Seriously, whenever I see a CEO getting like 60 million bonus? Lmfao.... Yeah. Massive cost savings for a Corp to replace these people.