The head of a large AI company warns about the impact of AI. Many people do not understand what effects AI has on various jobs.
Dario Amodei, head of Anthropic, one of the world’s leading AI companies, spoke with Axios magazine about AI and potential risks.
He explained to Axios that AI could destroy half of all entry-level jobs for employees and increase unemployment to 10 to 20% in the next one to five years. In comparison, the average unemployment rate in the USA, which he refers to, is currently between 4.5 and 6% (via statista.de).
AI companies need to stop downplaying the impending developments
Amodei said that AI companies and the US government must stop downplaying the impending developments: the potential massive destruction of jobs in technology, finance, law, consulting, and other employee professions, especially in entry-level jobs.
And this leads to several problems that many would not pay much attention to:
- Lawmakers do not understand the risks and therefore do not respond, for example, by taxing AI companies.
- Company leaders hesitate to speak openly about the issues, even though they are aware of the risks posed by AI.
- And many employees will only recognize the problems when they are directly affected by layoffs.
The head of Anthropic stated that many are not even aware of what lies ahead in the coming years:
Most of them are not aware that this is coming. It sounds crazy, and people just don’t believe it. We as the makers of this technology have the duty and obligation to be honest about what the future holds. I do not think people are aware of this.
It is a very strange dynamic where we say: ‘You should think about where the technology we developed is leading.’
Others also warn about the risks of artificial intelligence
Why should one take the warning seriously? Andrew Yang, former presidential candidate of the USA (Election 2020), stated in a television interview that Amodei warned of significant job losses. And he is not doing this out of self-interest; rather, his warnings are quite credible. Yang explained to CNN.com:
Laura Dario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic, one of the currently most successful AI companies. Claude, to the right, replaces programmers throughout the industry, and Dario has spoken up and said: You know what, you should tax AI companies, including us, because in the next one to five years we will replace up to 50% of entry-level jobs for employees.
He does not speak out of self-interest. He is actually stating how he sees the situation, and we should believe him 100%.
AI should create new jobs. However, instead, AI is currently causing more jobs to be eliminated than in years. Layoffs are at their highest level in many years, reminiscent of the financial crisis of 2008. Here, a similar peak in layoffs was observed: AI was supposed to create many new jobs: Instead, 1.2 million people became unemployed
