AI leaders discuss entry-level work

Demis Hassabis (Google Deepmind) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic) are already seeing early signs of AI's impact on the job market. Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Hassabis said entry-level jobs and internships could take a hit this year, something he's already noticing at Deepmind. In the near term, new and potentially more meaningful jobs could emerge, Hassabis said, but once AGI (artificial general intelligence) arrives, we're in uncharted territory. He criticized governments and economists for failing to grasp the scale of the changes ahead.

Amodei is sticking with his prediction that half of office jobs for young professionals could vanish within one to five years. Like Hassabis, he says he's already seeing this at Anthropic, where the company expects to need fewer junior and mid-level employees going forward. AI could outperform humans at everything within one to two years, he says, but the labor market is slow to react. His concern: the exponential pace of development will outstrip our ability to adapt.