OpenAI and Anthropic dig in against each other on AI jobs apocalypse

AI's most powerful CEOs are splitting into warring camps over whether their own technology will gut white-collar work or supercharge it — but the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

Why it matters: The two leading AI labs are trading in hype and doom, making it nearly impossible for companies, policymakers, and the public to know what's coming.

The big picture: A pair of public appearances this week highlighted how far apart Anthropic and OpenAI are.

• Anthropic co-founder https://www.anthropic.com/news/chris-olah-pope-leo-encyclical" target="_blank">Chris Olah, speaking Sunday at the Vatican's AI ethics conference, doubled down on rhetoric CEO Dario Amodei has used about the dangers of AI. "There is a real possibility that AI will displace human labor at very large scale," Olah said.
• OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is sounding rosier about the tech.

  He said it's unlikely to cause a https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/openais-altman-says-ai-unlikely-lead-jobs-apocalypse-2026-05-26/" target="_blank">jobs apocalypse and that he was "wrong" about earlier https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-ai-washing-layoffs-job-cuts-openai-india-summit-2026-2" target="_blank">projections that it would wipe out entire categories of jobs.

• "I'm delighted to ⁠be wrong about this, I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than ​has actually happened," Altman told Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn.

Zoom in: A spate of tech company layoffs in recent weeks has given fresh fodder to the "doomer" camp.

• Meta let go of nearly 8,000 employees, after projecting at least $125 billion in AI capital expenditures this year.
• That came after Coinbase, Block, Pinterest, Shopify and others tied workforce restructurings to AI capabilities.
• "AI costs a lot of money" and layoffs can offset those costs, Sophia Velastegui, Microsoft's former chief AI officer and now CEO at Velastegui Ventures, told Axios.

Yes, but: There's also recent evidence pointing in the other direction.

While unemployment has ticked up since 2023, it has predominantly been in sectors with the least exposure to AI, according to https://drive.google.com/file/d/182caQqLF_bFo_rY-PDKKM-fotbXptUg0/view" target="_blank">Stanford researchers.

• Software engineering job openings on https://data.indeed.com/#/postings" target="_blank">Indeed are up over 18% year over year, while all openings are down 4.3% over the same period.
• LinkedIn's chief economist recently said AI has led to around 1.3 million https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2026/03/ai-jobs-training-workplace-governments-policy-response?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">new job postings.

Reality check: Some technology giants are scaling back their AI usage after finding that the promise of huge productivity gains haven't materialized.

• https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-coo-andrew-macdonald-ai-token-spending-harder-justify-2026-5" target="_blank">Uber's COO said AI costs are getting "harder to justify" weeks after his chief technology officer blew through his 2026 IT budget on AI usage.
• Microsoft is winding down some of its Claude Code licenses, according tohttps://www.theverge.com/tech/930447/microsoft-claude-code-discontinued-notepad" target="_blank"> The Verge, a movehttps://fortune.com/2026/05/22/microsoft-ai-cost-problem-tokens-agents/" target="_blank"> Fortune tied to their enormous costs.

The bottom line: No one really knows how the AI jobs story will play out.

The most likely scenario: widespread displacement in some sectors, job growth in others, and an uneven transition that defies a clean narrative for either side.