AI was supposed to destroy jobs. Where’s the carnage?

The mass job destruction predicted from artificial intelligence has not materialized a year after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in May 2025 that half of all entry-level white-collar jobs would vanish and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman foresaw the end of certain job categories. The Guardian reports that while companies have cited AI in layoffs and workers have organized, the anticipated carnage has not occurred, though jobs are changing and economists expect more disruption ahead.

AI was supposed to destroy jobs. Where’s the carnage? The Guardian Technology https://www.theguardian.com/us/technology The AI jobs apocalypse never showed up. Still, jobs are changing and economists expect more to come. The prediction was stark: artificial intelligence https://www.theguardian.com/technology/artificialintelligenceai advancements would wipe out jobs en masse. “Half” of all entry-level white collar jobs would vanish, Anthropic /glossary/anthropic ’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in May 2025. A month later, OpenAI /glossary/openai ’s CEO, Sam Altman https://www.theguardian.com/technology/sam-altman , went further, foreseeing the end of “certain job categories”. Companies began citing AI in their layoffs. Workers organized. And students reconsidered their future careers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ng-interactive/2026/feb/20/ai-future-work-technology-white-collar . But a year later, the mass carnage hasn’t shown up. Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/aug/12/ai-job-destruction Get AI news in your inbox Daily digest of what matters in AI. Key Terms Explained Anthropic /glossary/anthropic An AI safety company founded in 2021 by former OpenAI researchers, including Dario and Daniela Amodei. Artificial Intelligence /glossary/artificial-intelligence The science of creating machines that can perform tasks requiring human-like intelligence — reasoning, learning, perception, language understanding, and decision-making. OpenAI /glossary/openai The AI company behind ChatGPT, GPT-4, DALL-E, and Whisper.