Matt Shumer — co‑founder of OthersideAI and CEO of Hyperwrite — has issued a stark warning about the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence (AI), saying the disruption it brings could be “much bigger than COVID‑19” and might arrive far sooner than most people expect. In a viral essay titled “Something Big Is Happening,” Shumer compares today’s phase of AI development to early February 2020, just before the pandemic upended the world, arguing that society is currently underestimating the scale and speed of change ahead.
According to Shumer, AI capabilities have rapidly advanced beyond mere automation — in his own work, he claims he now delegates complex technical tasks to AI systems that execute, test, and refine outputs independently, reducing his need to engage in hands‑on coding or problem‑solving. This “exponential leap” in AI performance is the basis for his belief that traditional cognitive work could soon be fundamentally transformed.
Shumer also referenced warnings from other AI leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has said that up to half of all entry‑level white‑collar jobs could be eliminated within one to five years due to AI. Shumer argues that AI isn’t just replacing specific narrow tasks as past technologies have, but acting as a general substitute for a wide range of cognitive labor — from legal research and financial analysis to writing and software engineering — because it improves capabilities across many domains at once.
While acknowledging that disruption can be unsettling, Shumer says his goal isn’t to incite panic but to encourage early adaptation and engagement with AI tools. He urges professionals to learn how to use AI effectively, rethink traditional work roles, and build resilience — both in skills and financially — because the transformation is already underway and may soon affect jobs and industries previously considered secure.
