The Anthropic CEO says automating most of a job is the easy part, and the hard part is what should keep everyone up at night
Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, sat down with Bloomberg to deliver a warning that cuts against the usual AI optimism cycle. The gist: AI has already automated roughly 90% of many job functions. But Amodei argues the real danger lives in what happens when AI learns to handle the remaining 10%.
The last 10% problem #
Automating 90% of a job doesn’t eliminate the job. It just makes the person doing the remaining 10% about ten times more productive. The trouble starts when AI closes that final gap.
Amodei framed the pace of AI cognitive improvement as something resembling “Moore’s Law for intelligence”: AI’s cognitive capabilities could be doubling every few months. That’s not a comfortable timeline for anyone betting their career on being the irreplaceable human in the loop.
The distinction Amodei draws is between short-term effects and long-term consequences. Right now, companies are seeing genuine productivity gains from AI tools. But the long-term trajectory points toward full task automation that doesn’t just augment workers but replaces the need for them entirely in certain roles. Earlier projections indicated that AI technologies could eliminate up to half of entry-level white-collar jobs within a span of 1-5 years.
Regulation as a safety net #
On June 10, 2026, Amodei pushed for a specific prescription: governments need the authority to block high-risk AI deployments, particularly in sensitive sectors like cybersecurity. He wants external authority with real teeth, not voluntary commitments or industry working groups.
Anthropic, which Amodei co-founded in 2021, develops the Claude family of AI models. His advocacy for rigorous testing and oversight before deployment comes from someone who runs one of the leading AI labs.
What this means for investors #
In the near term, companies integrating AI tools are seeing real productivity improvements. The 90% automation phase is a tailwind for businesses that adopt early and adapt their workflows.
The regulatory angle adds another variable. If governments establish real authority over AI deployment, that creates compliance costs and potential bottlenecks that favor larger, well-capitalized players over scrappy startups, along with an entirely new category of risk for companies deploying AI in regulated sectors.
One thing notably absent from Amodei’s Bloomberg interview was any mention of crypto or blockchain applications. Anthropic’s focus remains squarely on the traditional tech and policy landscape.
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