Thus far, AI had been disrupting the jobs of programmers and analysts, but it looks that it’ll soon be coming for the more sophisticated jobs as well.
Anthropic has said that it it expects that powerful AI systems, which will have intellectual capabilities matching or exceeding those of Nobel Prize winners, will be available in two years. The assertion was a part of Anthropic’s recommendations to the White House’s Request for Information on an AI Action Plan.
“We expect powerful AI systems will emerge in late 2026 or early 2027,” Anthropic says in its report. It says that such systems will have “intellectual capabilities matching or exceeding that of Nobel Prize winners across most disciplines—including biology, computer science, mathematics, and engineering.”
In addition, these systems will have the “the ability to navigate all interfaces available to a human doing digital work today, including the ability to process and generate text, audio, and video, the ability to autonomously control technology instruments like mice and keyboards, and the ability to access and browse the internet. They would also have the “the ability to autonomously reason through complex tasks over extended periods—hours, days, or even weeks—seeking clarification and feedback when needed, much like a highly capable employee would”, and the “ability to interface with the physical world; controlling laboratory equipment, robotic systems, and manufacturing tools through digital connections.”
This suggests that there could be disruption coming to all manner of jobs in the next couple of years. If AI will have the ability to navigate all interfaces available to a human doing digital work, and add intelligence on top of it, it’s hard to conceive how it could not do many of the digital work jobs that exist today. AI systems will also be able to work on extended tasks for days and weeks, much like human employees. And it appears that AI will also be able to control laboratory equipment, robotic systems, and manufacturing tools, which would indicate that manufacturing jobs aren’t entirely safe either.
Now Anthropic could be incentivized to make aggressive predictions — it’s raised money at a $61.5 billion valuation, and would need to justify it to investors. But there are changes happening on the ground which show that super-powerful AI systems are indeed coming. Coding tools like Cursor and Windsurf are helping coders code entire games in hours, and tools like OpenAI’s Deep Research are helping create 50-page reports in minutes. And if Anthropic is right about its timelines, all manner of jobs, ranging from laboratory technicians to Nobel Prize winners, could be seeing a giant reset in the not too distant future.