Graduation season turned sour this year. At multiple universities, students jeered speakers who praised AI’s promise. The protest wasn’t about automation replacing clerical work - it was about CEOs like Ken Griffin confirming AI now does PhD-level analysis in hours. Jason Calacanis called it a betrayal: a generation spent years earning degrees only to hear the architects of AI predict their obsolescence.
The anger isn’t abstract. A Stanford senior’s viral New York Times essay claimed AI has already hollowed out the value of liberal arts degrees. Students used ChatGPT to pass courses, then watched companies automate the very roles they trained for. Calacanis likened the mood to the 1960s anti-war movement - drafted into an AI revolution they never signed up for.
On the ground, the data cuts both ways. Software engineering job postings are up 18% year-over-year, and unemployment for college grads aged 20-24 dropped from nearly 9% to 5%. Anthony Pompliano notes companies are hiring more engineers than before, not fewer. Yet Jasmine Sun observes that AI leaders like Dario Amodei privately admit the median worker faces a bleak future - 'screwed' in their own words.
"Silicon Valley is bracing for a permanent underclass."
- Jasmine Sun, Bankless
That dissonance - between public optimism and private pessimism - fuels AI populism. Sun notes the issue has risen faster in polling than any other over the past year, even as it ranks below cost-of-living concerns. Politicians like Bernie Sanders are seizing it, framing AI as an elite project to dismantle the middle class. Unlike crypto, which few used, AI touches everyone: 70% of Americans say it’s moving too fast.
The economic model is shifting beneath their feet. Nathaniel Whittemore points to Anthropic’s ARR exploding from $9 billion to over $44 billion in months, doubling every six weeks. The 'token factory' model means one user can now generate thousands in monthly revenue - making OpenAI and Anthropic a duopoly capturing 89% of AI startup revenue.
"We’re moving into an era where every job becomes a potential startup."
- Nathaniel Whittemore, The AI Daily Brief
Still, the promise of 'working being optional' rings hollow to grads entering a job market defined by precarity. Calacanis argues the only escape is entrepreneurship - citing Stripe Atlas hitting 100,000 incorporations with Q1 filings up 130%. But for most, the message is clear: if you don’t own the model, you’re a cost center.
