AI could lead to 20% unemployment in next 5 years, SF tech CEO warns

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The CEO of a San Francisco artificial intelligence firm is warning that the very technology his company is helping to create could lead to an unprecedented job crisis in the U.S. Dario Amodei, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, says that AI could wipe out nearly half of all entry-level white-collar jobs.

Speaking to Axios from his SF office, Amodei said the technology could lead to unemployment spiking 10 to 20% in the next one to five years. Amodei, 42, said governments and AI companies need to stop “sugar-coating” what the proliferation of AI could lead to — “the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs,” according to Axios.

According to Amodei, lawmakers don’t get it, or don’t believe it and CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many, he said, won’t realize the risk of a “possible job apocalypse” until it’s already here.

“Most of them are unaware that this is about to happen,” Amodei told Axios. “It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it.”

Anthropic research cited by Axios indicates that AI is currently used mainly for augmentation — helping people do their jobs. Companies, according to Amodei, are poised to tip toward using AI more and more for automation — thereby replacing the workers entirely.

“It’s going to happen in a small amount of time — as little as a couple of years or less,” he told Axios.

So is humanity lost? Not exactly, according to Amodei. Speaking to Axios, the CEO said speeding up awareness among the public and government officials, being more transparent, and educating people about how AI can augment their jobs now, are all ways to slow the advance of the technology and mitigate worst-case scenarios.

The CEO’s dire warning comes on the heels of House Republicans adding a 10-year ban on U.S. states regulating AI technology to President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax bill.