In a recent AI convention in San Francisco where builders and researched of artificial intelligence (AI) came together to deliberate, Google scientist Jeff Dean made a crucial announcement. He was questioned by a member of the audience, “how far do you believe we are of having an AI operating 24/7 operating at the level of a junior engineer?” Taking a pause-for-impact, Dean vaguely mentioned “not that far” hinting at how the development is closer than most people will think. Upon further he affirmed that it is “possible within the next year”.
While this is a technological feat for advancing AI, what feels like a “dog seven” as per Dean, it may largely impact the already suffering employment numbers globally. Implying that a year’s worth of development is as impactful of what would take seven years, Dean points out that the world is “not that far” from a time where AI could indeed take over junior engineer positions.
Google, $GOOGL, Chief Scientist, Jeff Dean: We will have AI systems operating at the level of junior engineers within a year. pic.twitter.com/6opMDqEj5w
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) May 17, 2025
The AI-Ascent summit was also attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He gave useful insights into how different generations ere using ChatGPT. While it has become a potential replacement for Google, for an older generation, college students use it as a complete operation system, as per Altman’s revelations. In fact, OpenAI’s internal codes have been generated by ChatGPT too. In a previous statement, Google CEO Sundar Pichai shared that 25% of Google’s code is generated by AI today.
In a recent debut monthly unemployment survey conducted in India revealed that more than 5% individuals are unemployed across India. It revealed how more than 50% men in urban areas were not involved in labour. While women had lesser numbers in this case, significant numbers above 40% were observed.
Who is Jeff Dean?
Jeff Dean is a chief scientist at Google working solely for AI-research efforts and developments. Leading Google AI since 2018, he is a software engineer. Ever since the DeepMind and Google Brain merger, Google DeepMind has made efforts to improve AI and things it can do. In a most recent development, the Gemini 2.5 Pro launch has completely revolutionised AI prompts. Users of social media had revealed out a digital sketch and image was turned into a functioning code, showing how product development was no longer had a skill-based limitation. However, the real threat to entry-level jobs may still remain a conscious fear among job-seekers of today.