Since the advent of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, alarmist reports about the destruction of many professions threatened by generative AI have multiplied. But AI companies, the very ones leading this revolution, are addressing the subject relatively little, and understandably so: they are part of the problem. Yet it is high time to address the issue, argues Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, which is precisely one of these companies. He has decided to play the whistleblower.
Cancer is cured... but there will be 20% unemployment
“Cancer is cured, the economy is growing by 10% per year, the budget is balanced,” he prophesies, speaking of the supposed benefits of generative AI. But "20% of people don't have jobs," he told Axios. The jobs at risk are those that require analytical or administrative work, such as accountants, financial analysts, lawyers, consultants, bank employees, managers, marketing professionals, etc. And it's young professionals in particular who will be the most affected. Steve Bannon, a very far-right podcast host and advisor to Donald Trump, has also expressed alarm about the risks of AI: "I don't think anyone is considering how administrative, managerial, and technology jobs for people under 30—those entry-level jobs that are so important in their twenties—are going to be wiped out." And the shift could happen faster than we think. Mark Zuckerberg has declared that intermediate-level coders will become useless as early as this year, as AI is capable of producing code of the same quality. Anthropic's latest AI models, Sonnet 4 and Opus 4, are claimed to be particularly adept at programming...
To address this reality, which resembles a ticking social time bomb, Dario Amodei—who describes himself as a "truth-teller"—makes several proposals. The most urgent is to accelerate public awareness so that everyone can start thinking about reorienting their career plans now. He also recommends "slowing down" layoffs to help workers adapt.
On the political side, he strongly suggests ensuring that citizens' representatives are better informed about the reality of AI. A particularly ironic proposal when you consider that the Trump administration wants to gag US states by banning them from regulating AI for ten years.
The Anthropic boss finally proposes a 3% "token tax" on AI companies' revenues, in order to redistribute wealth. "Obviously, it's not in my economic interest," he admits. "But I think it would be a reasonable solution to the problem." Such a tax could raise "trillions of dollars," he says.
Source: Axios
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