Americans are concerned about AI: AI Growing Divide and the Vanishing Path for New Workers Artificial Intelligence continues to grow, forcing companies to find a way to close the gap between innovation and preparation.
Companies have begun integrating AI into their day-to-day operations. Some employers are concerned that this will lead to a complete elimination of their roles within companies.
In a previous Morning Edition video interview, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg raised concerns that America is not prepared for the economic downsides of artificial intelligence
1. A Warning from the Frontlines
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, warns that the AI revolution may arrive faster than our social and economic systems can adapt. He predicts that within the next five years, up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear, potentially pushing unemployment rates up to 10–20%.This isn’t abstract speculation — Amodei is creating the very tools he fears may disrupt society. He describes what he calls a “white-collar bloodbath,” where roles in technology, law, finance, consulting, and beyond could vanish almost overnight.He cautions that many workers are unaware of these threats, and business leaders and lawmakers are often too slow to act.
2. How Does AI Widen the Wealth Gap?
Shareholders or boards of directors will not allow many entry-level positions anymore.
Think about it, if our companies do the same thing, but you have newbies in yours but i have AI in mine, my company is cheaper to run. Sure, long-term it’s not sustainable, but we only worry about the next quarter or 2. With AI, there is no way you can compete with me short term, and my company would be able to poach your more experienced, useful employees, widening the gap even more.
Long-term, this is bad for everyone, as unemployment will rise and eventually, whole industries will die, as no one knows how to do the jobs anymore. However, as I said before, we only worry about the next quarter or two, so I think this is inevitable.
I was at a hospitality trade show a few years ago, and I remember seeing one of those “cooking robots” – basically, it was an automotive robot that could flip eggs, pancakes, and operate a deep fryer. The sales guy trying to sell it shoved a brochure in my hands and went on about how it will “save on labor” and how “it’s the way of the future.” I read the brochure and listened to his sales pitch – all while seething internally.
When he was done, I looked at him and said, “Do you know what the average line cook makes? $9 an hour plus tips, about $12 an hour. Your company is developing a machine that will steal jobs from people who make less than $25k a year, people who don’t get benefits, paid time off, people who struggle to survive.” A few people heard my response and gave the sales guy the stink eye, so he started trying to come up with a response. I cut him off, “Your company has designed a product that will only benefit the owning class, a product that will steal food from the mouths of children.” I ripped up the brochure and tossed it at the guy.
The ONLY people benefiting from AI and Automation are the owning class.
Why Entry-Level Jobs Matter — and Why They’re Vulnerable
Entry-level roles are more than just jobs — they’re stepping stones. They teach workplace norms, problem-solving, collaboration, and discipline. But as AI increasingly masters rote mental tasks—drafting memos, analyzing data, parsing documents—these roles are under siege.
Tasks once reserved for junior analysts or assistants are now being automated. The combination of faster‐than‐expected AI capabilities and slow economic adaptation means a shrinking space for newcomers.
Investopedia underscores this risk too, noting that ginormous swaths of entry-level white-collar work are being targeted by AI — potentially displacing large segments of early-career professionals.
4. Human Stories — Real People, Real Fears
I feel like the main problem with this hypothetical scenario. Where all the rich people disappear into bunkers is that wealth is a subjective measure of value based on the things that the culture you exist in considers valuable at the time. So if you destroy society and disappear into a bunker for a decade.
When you come out of it, your wealth has no value anymore. The only things of value you would have left would be whatever you were smart enough to stash with you in that bunker. That stuff is finite, and now the only other people left that you have to deal with are other wealthy people who have also stockpiled weapons and other things. It’s just gonna be a bunch of rich people fighting over a couple of fucking crackers at the end.
They are honestly much better letting. This world turn with the billions of people that exist on it and letting us live our own little lives and providing a distraction to all the other rich people between them and each other.
Also, being rich doesn’t make you particularly healthy or attractive or intelligent or talented. Then removing most of the genetic diversity on this earth is also a really bad idea if you’re hoping for your grandchildren not to look like the Habsburgs.
Just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. It’s a bad idea and it’ll almost certainly end in disaster for them one way or another. But a lot of other people will die first, which is sort of the whole problem with it.
Being rich doesn’t mean you’re smart or have perfect genes, but a lot of them think it does mean that – just look at Musk and his breeding kink.
Edit: they’re probably looking forward to a gigantic free-for-all between all the rich people. Who stockpiled the most weapons and ammo? Who forgot to stockpile food? Kill your rivals and you get to crown yourself undisputed emperor of the few million people left alive and rebuild civilization as you see fit!
5. Balancing the Picture: Opportunities Amid Disruption
It’s not all doom and gloom. AI also holds tremendous potential to augment human work, freeing people from repetitive tasks and unlocking higher creativity or higher-value roles.
For example, rather than drafting a contract from scratch, a paralegal might collaborate with an AI that generates initial versions—then refine, strategize, or negotiate. Some people are saying Employee becomes supervisor of AI, rather than being subordinate to repetitive tasks.
Likewise, in fields like healthcare or design, AI tools can support professionals to focus on interpretation, empathy, and insight,tasks still very much in need of human to supervise AI.
But this transformation won’t happen automatically ,it requires companies and policymakers to design for augmentation, not replacement.
6. Steering Instead of Stopping
Amodei emphasizes that we can not stop the AI train ,but we can steer it. He proposes several actionable steps:
Raise public awareness and talk honestly about which jobs are most at risk, helping individuals and institutions prepare.
Encourage retraining and AI-augmentation, so workers can shift into roles that partner with AI, not compete against it .
Educate policymakers, ensuring lawmakers understand AI’s implications and can craft informed policy .
Debate redistribution models, such as taxes on AI-generated value or “token taxes” on usage that could fund social programs or retraining efforts.
7. The Stakes Are Democratic, Not Just Economic
Ensuring that average workers can still build, contribute, and prosper isn’t only about fairness — it’s about preserving the foundations of democratic societies.
Final Thoughts: A Human-Centered AI Future Needs Human Choice
AI’s advance is unstoppable — but our response shapes its consequences. Without action, the very people who most need a launchpad can get shut out, while inequalities deepen.
Everyone is overestimating “AI”. It is not AI. Those have no reasoning. This utopia they want doesn’t exist and can crumble without human supervision in an instant. If you left Amazon warehouse robots for one week alone, you would come back to chaos. It all appears to be great AI until it isn’t. You can be preparing for years, but the world changes.
Robots don’t do maintenance; everything needs maintenance, including parts and all electrical work, which can fail. Unless you have a crew of dozens of different professions in your bunker. You won’t stay there for very long until something fails. Nothing they automate will work forever. They bullshit their clients, and they bullshit themselves if they think that.
Artificial Intelligence is growing day by day. That is forcing companies to find a way to close the gap between innovation and preparation.
Companies have begun integrating AI into their day-to-day operations. Some employers are concerned that this will lead to a complete elimination of their roles within companies.
In a previous Morning Edition video interview, former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg raised concerns that. America is not prepared for the economic downsides of artificial intelligence
God, so much misinformation.
Lowering the skill floor has historically and will continue to eliminate many jobs. But the long term will create many more jobs. Productivity goes up, the cost of goods/services goes down etc…
The issue is that the people who lose their jobs are not the same ones getting the newly created jobs. That’s why the government must set up a UBI / heavily increase social safety programs.
UpdateBy TrendToday360
Leave a Reply