AI panic post goes viral: Matt Shumer warns AI job shift is here, calls it ‘bigger than Covid’

New Delhi: Matt Shumer, the co-founder and CEO of OthersideAI, has dropped a long, almost diary-like warning on X that reads less like a hype thread and more like a late-night call to family. Dated around February 10, 2026, his post argues the AI shift is already here, and most people are still treating it like a distant tech story.

If you have been around enough “AI will change everything” takes, your first reaction might be to scroll past. I nearly did. Then I kept reading, and it felt like someone trying to shake a friend awake, a little dramatic, a little messy, and very direct.

“Something big is happening,” and he compares it to early 2020

Shumer opens with a flashback to February 2020, when most people were not paying attention to the early signs of Covid. He writes, “I think we’re in the ‘this seems overblown’ phase of something much, much bigger than Covid.”

He frames it as a message for “my family, my friends, the people I care about who keep asking me ‘so what’s the deal with AI?’” He says he has been giving the “polite version” and the “cocktail-party version,” and that it no longer fits what he believes is happening.

A small group is steering the next jump, he claims

Shumer says the future is being shaped by “a remarkably small number of people,” pointing to “a few hundred researchers” at companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. His point is blunt. Many builders and startup folks are watching from close range, but they are still not steering the core model curve.

He puts it like this: “We’re watching this unfold the same as you… we just happen to be close enough to feel the ground shake first.”

February 5, 2026 is his personal breaking point

The post gets specific about a date. Shumer writes that on February 5, two major labs released new models on the same day, naming “GPT-5.3 Codex from OpenAI” and “Opus 4.6 from Anthropic.” That day, he says, changed how he sees his own work.

One line stands out: “I am no longer needed for the actual technical work of my job.” He adds, “I describe what I want built, in plain English, and it just… appears.”

He describes a workflow where the AI writes “tens of thousands of lines of code,” tests the app by clicking through it, fixes issues on its own, then comes back with, “It’s ready for you to test.” He says, “I’m not exaggerating. That is what my Monday looked like this week.”

The jobs warning, and the advice he pushes

Shumer argues this change spreads from coding into other white-collar work fast. He lists areas like “law, finance, medicine, accounting, consulting, writing, design, analysis, customer service.” He also cites a claim from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei: AI will eliminate “50% of entry-level white-collar jobs within one to five years.”

He ends up giving practical advice too, including a simple habit list that reads like a survival checklist:

  • Start using AI seriously for real work, not casual questions
  • Try the newest tools, not outdated free versions
  • Build financial breathing room, build skills, stay flexible

Even if you disagree with his timeline, the post is a clear signal. More founders are going public with how fast their own workflows are changing, and that shift is now part of the news cycle, not just lab chatter.