External signal·Fortune·May 26, 2026·5 min read
Sam Altman and Dario Amodei walk back the AI jobs apocalypse
“delighted to be wrong”
Summary
At a Commonwealth Bank summit in Sydney on 26 May, Sam Altman said he no longer expects "the kind of jobs apocalypse" he had previously implied and is "delighted to be wrong" about entry-level displacement. Dario Amodei — earlier the "half of white-collar jobs" voice — reframed AI as expanding what people can do rather than replacing them. Fortune notes both pivots arrive during the IPO wind-up window for OpenAI and Anthropic.
Predictions for the future of work
Both CEOs soften their earlier mass-unemployment warnings toward an "AI augments more than it replaces" line, while the structural pressure on first-rung roles is acknowledged to persist. The forecast shifts from headcount collapse toward matching-and-adjustment friction in the labour market.
Originally published by Fortune · May 26, 2026
Read the original at Fortune