College Grads Are Lab Rats in the Great AI Experiment

When companies are advised to treat ChatGPT like an intern, what happens to entry-level jobs?

- Parmy Olson

Companies are eliminating the grunt work that used to train young professionals—and they do not seem to have a clear plan for what comes next.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is analyzing documents, writing briefing notes, creating PowerPoint presentations, or handling customer service queries, and—surprise!—now the younger humans who normally do that sort of work are struggling to find jobs.

Recently, the chief executive officer of AI firm Anthropic predicted AI would wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs. The reason is simple. Companies are often advised to treat ChatGPT "like an intern," and some are doing so at the expense of human interns.

This has thrust college grads into a painful experiment across multiple industries, but it does not have to be all bad. Employers must take the role of scientists, observing how AI helps and hinders their new recruits, while figuring out new ways to train them. And the young lab rats in this trial must adapt faster than the technology trying to displace them, while jumping into more advanced work.

Consulting giant KPMG, for instance, is giving graduates tax work that would previously go to staff with three years of experience. Junior staff members at Price Waterhouse Coopers have started pitching to clients. Hedge fund Man Group tells me its junior analysts who use AI to scour research papers now have more time to formulate and test trading ideas, what the firm calls "higher-level work."