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New York CEO's chilling warning goes viral; says AI will be ‘much bigger than Covid’
New York CEO Matt Shumer's essay on AI and its impact has received over 61 million views on X and prompted a social media debate.
Hyperwrite CEO Matt Shumer, in an essay titled "Something Big Is Happening," shared about the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI), adding how it can do all his technical work with near perfection.
“I've spent six years building an AI startup and investing in the space. I live in this world. And I'm writing this for the people in my life who don't... my family, my friends, the people I care about who keep asking me ‘so what's the deal with AI?’ and getting an answer that doesn't do justice to what's actually happening,” he wrote, adding that the answer he usually gives them is a polite “cocktail-party version”.
In the essay, he shared what he really thinks about AI’s impact on the world, as someone who works closely with the technology.
He highlights how quickly the world flipped during the pandemic, shifting from "normal" to "total lockdown" in about three weeks. He uses this to warn that AI disruption won't be a slow, decades-long transition, but a sudden "rearranging". The CEO stated, “I think we're in the ‘this seems overblown’ phase of something much, much bigger than Covid.”
Talking about the influence of those working with AI, he wrote, “I should be clear about something up front: even though I work in AI, I have almost no influence over what's about to happen, and neither does the vast majority of the industry. The future is being shaped by a remarkably small number of people: a few hundred researchers at a handful of companies... OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and a few others.”
He warned, “But it's time now. Not in an ‘eventually we should talk about this’ way. In a ‘this is happening right now and I need you to understand it’ way.”
“It happened to me first”
Shumer shared that he is no longer needed for the actual technical work of his job. He said that he tells the AI what he wants, walks away from his computer for 4 hours, and comes back to find the work done.
He stated that the AI's work is better than what he could create. “Done well, done better than I would have done it myself, with no corrections needed. A couple of months ago, I was going back and forth with the AI, guiding it, making edits. Now I just describe the outcome and leave.”
“AI will eliminate 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs”
Matt Shumer also recalled the haunting remark by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who said that AI will eliminate half of white-collar entry-level jobs.
“Given what the latest models can do, the capability for massive disruption could be here by the end of this year. It'll take some time to ripple through the economy, but the underlying ability is arriving now,” Shumer wrote.
What does it mean for your job?
Shumer continued, “AI isn't replacing one specific skill. It's a general substitute for cognitive work. It gets better at everything simultaneously. When factories automated, a displaced worker could retrain as an office worker. When the internet disrupted retail, workers moved into logistics or services. But AI doesn't leave a convenient gap to move into. Whatever you retrain for, it's improving at that too.”
He said that almost all the knowledge-based work will be impacted, including legal work, financial analysis, journalism, content writing, software engineering, medical analysis, and customer service.
“The most recent AI models make decisions that feel like judgment. They show something that looked like taste: an intuitive sense of what the right call was, not just the technically correct one.”
What should you do?
“I'm not writing this to make you feel helpless. I'm writing this because I think the single biggest advantage you can have right now is simply being early. Early to understand it. Early to use it. Early to adapt,” advised Matt Shumer.
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He suggested that people start using AI seriously and not just as a search engine. The CEO advised people not to have an “ego” while using and adapting to AI. Further, he said that everyone should get their “financial house in order.”
“I'm not a financial advisor, and I'm not trying to scare you into anything drastic. But if you believe, even partially, that the next few years could bring real disruption to your industry, then basic financial resilience matters more than it did a year ago.”
Chilling warning:
“I know this isn't a fad. The technology works, it improves predictably, and the richest institutions in history are committing trillions to it,” Shumer wrote.
“I know the next two to five years are going to be disorienting in ways most people aren't prepared for. This is already happening in my world. It's coming to yours.”
He added, “We're past the point where this is an interesting dinner conversation about the future. The future is already here. It just hasn't knocked on your door yet. It's about to,” and concluded his note.
