Anthropic's Amodei warns AI could eliminate half of entry-level jobs; Amazon's Garman calls that 'dumb.' Indeed data shows a 6% drop in postings. Execs at Netflix, Google DeepMind and Sierra offer competing views.
The future of entry-level work in an AI-powered economy has split tech leadership into two camps. One side warns that generative AI will eliminate a large share of junior roles. The other insists younger workers have never been more valuable.
Entry-level job postings on Indeed have fallen roughly 6% over the past year, according to Felix Aidala, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. He said the drop is hard to pin on any single factor. AI, remote work, and broader macroeconomic conditions all likely played a part. AI implementation roles have grown "significantly" on the site in recent months, he added.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has become the leading voice of the first camp. He has said AI may eliminate up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs in the coming years. "We, as the producers of this technology, have a duty and an obligation to be honest about what is coming," he said in an interview last year.
Amazon cloud chief Matt Garman takes the opposite view. He said about half of white-collar jobs "may change" because of AI, but that does not mean they disappear. He called the idea of replacing entry-level staff with AI tools "one of the dumbest things" he has heard. Speaking on the Platformer podcast, Garman stressed that entry-level employees are inexpensive, learn company culture, and are often eager to adopt new tools. "They're some of the very best employees you can possibly have," he said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said AI has not yet displaced young workers as quickly as he expected. "I'm delighted to be wrong about this," he said at an event hosted by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. "I thought that there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar work jobs being eliminated by now than it's actually happened."
Netflix's chief product and technology officer, Elizabeth Stone, told Lenny's Podcast that junior employees remain essential. "We are still hiring junior people, and they're really important to our talent strategy," she said. She described younger workers as more open-minded, more comfortable with emerging AI, and more attuned to how entertainment is changing. "I can guarantee you that earlier career talent is going to be teaching older folks like me many new things, too," Stone said.
Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis urged young people to become AI "ninjas." He said mastering the tools early will give them a leg up as the job market shifts. "Whatever happens with these AI tools, you'll be better off understanding how they work, and how they function, and what you can do with them," he said on the Hard Fork podcast.
Garrett Lord, CEO of Handshake, a job search and AI training platform, called new graduates "AI native" on Lenny's Podcast. Knowing how to use AI is "like having your Iron Man suit on," he said. "A lot of people are kind of hyperbolic at saying that all young people won't have jobs. That's not what we're hearing from our employers."
Clay Bavor, cofounder of AI startup Sierra, made a similar case on the 20VC podcast. He said some of the company's strongest employees are in their early 20s because they use AI better than veteran workers. "I can't remember a time when a young person with no work experience, but with the right mindset and experience using some of these tools, has ever been so valued," Bavor said.
The disagreement centers on speed, Aidala said. "Historically, technological advancements have almost always led to job growth for the economy as a whole. But those transformations take time as new roles and industries are developed."
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