Will AI wipe out the first rung of the career ladder? | Artificial intelligence (AI) – Generative AI is reshaping the job market, and it’s starting with entry-level roles
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/jun/02/artificial-intelligence-jobs-techscape
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From the article
However, others less directly involved in the creation of AI are echoing Amodei’s warning. Steve Bannon, former Trump administration official and current influential Maga podcaster, agreed with Amodei and said that automated jobs would be a major issue in the 2028 US presidential election. [The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/03/14/programming-jobs-lost-artificial-intelligence/) reported in March that more than a quarter of all computer programming jobs in the US vanished in the past two years, citing the inflection point of the downturn as the release of ChatGPT in late 2022.
Days before Amodei’s remarks were published, an executive at LinkedIn offered similarly grim prognostications based on the social network’s data in a [New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/opinion/linkedin-ai-entry-level-jobs.html) essay headlined “I see the bottom rung of the career ladder breaking”.
“There are growing signs that artificial intelligence poses a real threat to a substantial number of the jobs that normally serve as the first step for each new generation of young workers,” wrote Aneesh Raman, chief economic opportunity officer at LinkedIn.
The US Federal Reserve published observations on the job market for recent college graduates in the first quarter of 2025 that do not inspire hope. The agency’s [report](https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market#–:overview) reads: “The labor market for recent college graduates deteriorated noticeably in the first quarter of 2025. The unemployment rate jumped to 5.8% – the highest reading since 2021 – and the underemployment rate rose sharply to 41.2%.” The Fed did not attribute the deterioration to a specific cause.
Nah. It’ll wipe it all. Who will middle managers manage if there is no lower run employee to have pointless meetings with? They gonna meet with the AI?
AI wiping out the shit jobs would be great if it meant that people could still house and feed themselves, and that people just wouldn’t have to do shit jobs anymore.
Crazy that the sentiment is “fuck em” instead of “maybe we’re doing something wrong.” Imagine if everyone suddenly grew a conscience.
A brief consideration;
You’ve seen highway construction where a two-lane road goes down to a one-land road, right? They usually have one guy on either side holding a sign with “SLOW” on one side and “STOP” on the other. He radios the other guy and they flip the signs so the traffic can take turns on the one-way road.
This seems like a perfect job for automation, right? Little thought required, basically a glorified traffic light.
But that’s not the purpose of the job. The purpose of the job is to test the FNG (Fuckin’ New Guy). See if he can show up clean-cut, sober and on time at the crack ass of dawn and follow orders even when they suck.
If the FNG can’t manage the easiest job in the world, how are you ever gonna trust him to get trained on equipment that can kill people?
All instances of automation need to be considered the same way: whether or not they gut the future talent pool rather than easing a burden.
It’s going to kill colleges too. Why go to school when you can just ask a prompt.