DeepMind and Anthropic CEOs: AI is already coming for junior roles at our companies

• The CEOs of Anthropic and DeepMind said they're seeing signs that AI is affecting junior-level hiring.
• Both said they saw evidence of it happening inside their companies, and that 2026 could speed it.
• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he worries fast AI development will "overwhelm our ability to adapt."

AI might not be causing a labor market bloodbath, but leaders at Google DeepMind and Anthropic say they're starting to see its impact on junior roles inside their own companies.

"I think we're going to see this year the beginnings of maybe it impacting the junior level," said Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis during a joint interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at Davos on Tuesday.

"I think there is some evidence, I can feel that ourselves, maybe like a slowdown in hiring in that," he said, highlighting entry-level roles and internships as vulnerable examples.

Amodei appeared to agree. The Anthropic boss said last year he believed AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and push unemployment as high as 20%.

As of Tuesday, his prediction had not changed, he said.

"Now I think maybe we're starting to see just the little beginnings of it, in software and coding," he said. "I can see it within Anthropic, where I can look forward to a time where on the more junior end and then on the more intermediate end we actually need less and not more people."

He added: "And we're thinking about how to deal with that within Anthropic in a sensible way."

Amodei and Hassabis have both warned that AI's potential impact on the economy and labor markets could demand institutional change, including through international organizations governing AI and economic intervention, to mitigate the most disastrous outcomes.

"My worry is as this exponential keeps compounding, and I don't think it's going to take that long — again, somewhere between a year and five years — it will overwhelm our ability to adapt," said Amodei.