Welcome back to Daily Zaps, your regularly-scheduled dose of AI news ⚡️ 

Here’s what we got for ya today:

• ❌ AI and white-collar jobs bloodbath

• 🌐 Opera Neon - AI agentic browser

• 😎 The downsides of vibe coding

• 🚕 Robotaxi service in Austin June 12

Let’s get right into it!

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CAREERS

AI and white-collar jobs bloodbath

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns that AI could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and drive unemployment to 10-20% within the next one to five years, urging governments and companies to stop downplaying this looming disruption. While AI promises breakthroughs like curing cancer and rapid economic growth, it also risks causing massive job losses across industries like technology, finance, law, and consulting as AI agents increasingly perform tasks once done by humans—sometimes more cheaply and efficiently.

Despite these risks, public awareness remains low, lawmakers are largely uninformed, and business leaders are quietly preparing to replace human workers with AI at scale. Amodei calls for transparent public dialogue, better government education, job retraining, and innovative policies such as taxing AI-generated revenue to mitigate inequality and economic concentration. He stresses that halting AI’s advance is impossible, but careful steering now can help society manage the transition and avoid catastrophic social consequences.

BIG TECH

Opera Neon - AI agentic browser

Opera has introduced Neon, a new "fully agentic browser" featuring an integrated AI that chats with users and autonomously navigates the web by analyzing webpage layouts. Building on Opera's Browser Operator preview, Neon can complete tasks like form filling and online shopping while learning and adapting to your writing style locally for privacy.

It can also create websites, animations, and game prototypes, continuing complex tasks offline via secure European servers. While Opera positions Neon as a pioneering step toward intelligent browsing, it faces tough competition from dominant players like Chrome (66.45% market share) and similar AI initiatives from Google and OpenAI. Questions remain whether users want an AI to handle complex actions like booking trips, given potential errors.

If you want to try Neon for yourself, you can join the wait list.

TRENDING

The downsides of vibe coding

Some businesses are realizing the risks of relying on AI-generated code despite productivity gains from tools like GitHub Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude, as such code can be flawed or introduce serious security vulnerabilities. For example, Replit discovered that software created by AI coding product Lovable exposed user data and leaked passwords, prompting Lovable to add a Security Scan feature.

To mitigate these risks, companies like Amplitude now mandate human audits of all AI-generated code and enforce security-focused guidelines, such as hosting AI models internally and instructing models to self-review code for flaws. These challenges underscore the broader tension between the rapid adoption of AI automation and the potential for dangerous, untrusted outputs that could compromise business and user safety.

BIG TECH

Robotaxi service in Austin June 12

Tesla plans to launch its robotaxi self-driving "Cybercab" service in Austin, Texas, on June 12, aligning with CEO Elon Musk’s stated June rollout window for Texas and California. While Tesla unveiled a dedicated robotaxi design last year, the initial launch will likely use existing Model Y vehicles rather than the larger “Robovan.” Musk recently noted that self-driving Model Ys have been tested on Austin’s streets without incidents, and Tesla aims to begin factory-to-customer self-delivery next month.

However, Austin officials have yet to receive important safety and operational details from Tesla, such as first-responder guides and autonomous driving levels. The launch will enter a competitive market where Waymo already operates a self-driving ride-hailing service in Austin. Tesla has not provided additional comments on the project.