AI Leaders Retract 'Job Apocalypse' Ahead of Massive IPOs... Pivoting to an Optimistic Outlook

Key chief executive officers (CEOs) leading the artificial intelligence industry, such as OpenAI's Sam Altman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei, have simultaneously retracted their predictions of massive white-collar job destruction caused by AI. This dramatic change in attitude is drawing significant attention as it coincides with a time when both companies are preparing for large-scale initial public offerings (IPOs) aiming for corporate valuations of around $1 trillion.

Entry-Level Office Jobs Less Affected... Altman Says "Glad to Be Wrong in My Prediction"

Sam Altman virtually attended the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) conference held in Sydney on Tuesday and had a conversation with CBA CEO Matt Comyn. At this event, Altman stated, "I am glad that my prediction about entry-level office jobs disappearing was wrong," revealing that the likelihood of AI causing a global job apocalypse is low.

Having previously warned that AI would replace most of the jobs people do today, he cited the 'importance of human interaction' as the reason his prediction missed the mark. Altman mentioned a personal experiment where he delegated his Slack and email responses to AI, explaining, "We truly value actual interaction with people, and we cannot outsource this to AI in the near future." In addition, he admitted that while OpenAI roughly correctly predicted the general direction of AI's technological development, they were quite wrong about its short-term social and economic impacts.

Amodei's Shift in Stance... "Jevons Paradox"

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has also changed his stance. Back in May 2025, he warned that AI could eliminate 50% of office jobs and cause the unemployment rate to skyrocket to 10-20%, stating that he had a duty to be honest about the approaching future as a producer of AI technology.

However, CEO Amodei has now reversed his stance 180 degrees, re-evaluating AI automation from the perspective of the 'Jevons Paradox', where an increase in efficiency leads to an expansion in consumption. His argument is that if 90% of a job is automated, people will focus on the remaining 10%, and this 10% will expand into the entire task, thereby improving productivity 10 times over.

Suspicions of an 'IPO Strategy' Aimed at Reversing Public Opinion and the Conflicting Reality

Some point out that their sudden optimism is highly intentional. Peter Wildeford of the AI Policy Network pointed out that "Americans are feeling quite negative emotions about AI," and that it is difficult to distinguish whether AI executives have changed their predictions on actual economic impacts, or are simply trying to change public opinion and the narrative.

Contrary to the optimistic outlook, actual employment indicators and the situation on the ground are complexly intertwined. The Yale Budget Lab analyzed that there have been no significant labor market changes in occupations highly exposed to AI, while Goldman Sachs stated that 200,000 jobs have been created through data center construction.

On the other hand, by May 2026, more than 115,000 layoffs occurred in the tech industry, and AI was cited as the cause for over 50,000 job cuts. According to Reuters, it has been reported that some roles are already being replaced by AI at companies such as HSBC, Amazon, and CBA, Australia's largest bank led by CEO Matt Comyn. Furthermore, the Australian logistics software company WiseTech fired about 2,000 employees, one-third of its workforce, declaring that the era of manually writing code is over, demonstrating that job displacement by AI is already clearly underway on the ground.