Palantir CEO Alex Karp says: AI will destroy these jobs
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has now issued a stark warning about the future of work in the age of artificial intelligence. Karp predicted that humanities-based jobs will now be among the first casualties. As reported by Business Insider, speaking during a panel at the World Economic Forum, Karp revealed that his own academic background which is a philosophy degree from Haverford College, a law degree from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in social theory from Germany, cautioned that such qualifications may no longer be viable. “AI will destroy humanities jobs,” Karp said. “You went to an elite school, and you studied philosophy — hopefully you have some other skill, because that skillset is going to be very hard to market.”
Vocational skill in demand
Karp believes that workers with technical and vocational training will be in then highest demand. He quoted battery manufacturing as an exampple, nothing that technicians in such industries are “very valuable, if not irreplaceable.” “There will be more than enough jobs for the citizens of your nation, especially those with vocational training,” Karp told BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who moderated the discussion.
Debate at Davos
Not all leaders at Davos agreed with Karp’s assessment. Finance executives told Business Insider that liberal arts degrees may actually become more valuable, as AI takes over routine financial analysis. Critical and creative thinking, they argued, is increasingly prized in young recruits.Meanwhile, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei highlighted another trend: entry-level hiring is already declining due to AI. Amodei said software and coding roles at Anthropic were down across junior and mid-level positions.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp says certain tech employees will be valuable and highly paid
Recently, Karp said that value of skilled workers is rising. Speaking on TBPN, a tech talk show broadcast live from Palantir’s customer conference, AIP Con 8, Karp said, “Workers become more valuable. The person at the top is actually crazy valuable. People with technical expertise are crazy valuable.” His words underscore a trend that’s become increasingly apparent in Silicon Valley: in a world awash with automation and AI, human expertise, especially deep technical skill, has become a rare commodity.Karp calls these individuals “artist-shaped people,” a nod to the company’s unique culture, sometimes referred to internally as “an artist colony.” He added, “Artist-shaped people are going to be incredibly valuable, and they’re going to demand to be very highly paid.”. The statement doesn’t just reflect Palantir’s philosophy; it mirrors the market reality, where top AI researchers and engineers have recently netted unprecedented paydays, sometimes reaching hundreds of millions, while thousands of others were laid off from companies like Microsoft and Meta.
