Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, bristling at Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's warning of a looming white-collar apocalypse, tells us that artificial intelligence will create vastly more and superior jobs, Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.

• Why it matters: The Huang vs. Amodei debate, playing out in exclusive interviews with us, captures a deep divide among AI experts over America's job market in a highly automated world.

Both of them agree we'll soon have AI that's smarter than humans — and will radically reshape how people work and companies operate.

🔎 Zoom in: Amodei told us AI could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs in a few years. His comments sparked weeks of national debate over the dangers of fast and furious technological advancements in AI.

• Huang (pronounced wong) — whose company last week became the most valuable in history, worth $4 trillion — responded: "I don't know why AI companies are trying to scare us. We should advance the technology safely just as we advance cars safely. ... But scaring people goes too far."
• Noting Amodei and other AI leaders issuing warnings are "really, really consequential and smart people," Huang said he was eager to "offer a counter-view," based on "all the evidence of history."

"If we have no new ideas," Huang began, "and the work that we're doing is precisely all that needs to be done ... and no more than what humanity will ever need, then when we become more productive, [Amodei's warning would be] absolutely correct — we will need fewer people doing that work."

• "However, if you now look at history and you ask yourself: 'Do I have more ideas so that, if I were to be more productive, I could do more?' Then, you would describe a condition that reflects human history — that we have become more productive over time."

"We've become more productive raising crops," Huang continued, noting that it's not like all of a sudden, as a result of mechanization, "everybody ran out of work."

• "Everyone's jobs will change," he said. "Some jobs will be unnecessary. Some people will lose jobs. But many new jobs will be created. ... The world will be more productive. There will be higher GDP [gross domestic product, or total national output]. There will be more jobs. But every job will be augmented by AI."

In response to Huang's comments, Jack Clark, co-founder and head of policy at Anthropic, told us: "Starting a conversation about the impact of AI on entry-level jobs is a matter of pragmatism. As producers of this technology, we have an obligation to be transparent and clear-eyed about AI's potential societal and economic impacts."

• "We should be discussing these issues in the open and preparing for them as needed — just like we should be discussing and preparing for its transformative benefits."

🖼️ The big picture: Huang, 62, started Nvidia 30+ years ago — back in 1993, before the dotcom bubble. The former engineer was relatively anonymous when Nvidia's chips were used for graphics for computer gaming.

• Now, he's one of the world's leading faces of a technology that is just bursting into widespread public consciousness.

During last week's visit to D.C. from his headquarters in Silicon Valley, Huang met with President Trump at the White House, and sat down with senators on Capitol Hill. Huang then headed straight for Beijing, where today he'll start meeting with Chinese officials.

• ⬇️ Column continues below.

For knowledge workers who want to prepare and protect themselves, Jensen Huang recommends learning to use AI "to transform the way you work" — exactly the advice we've given every person who works at Axios, Jim and Mike continue.

• "You might go forward 10 years from now, " Huang said, "and just realize: The actual thing I was doing before that I considered to be my job, I don't do anymore. But I still have a great job — in fact, even better than before. The things that I'm doing at my job are different, because AI is helping me do a lot of it. But I'm doing a lot more meaningful things."

🚚 Case in point: We asked Huang about one of the most vivid examples of AI-endangered workers — long-haul truckers, who could be largely supplanted by self-driving technology.

• Many long-haul truckers, he postulated, "really don't love their job. They would love if they were short-haul truckers who were able to go to sleep at night with their family. They would go to their jobs. And between the cities, the truck would drive by itself. That would improve the quality of life of many long-haul truckers."

Zoom out: Huang loves to talk about a "new industrial revolution" where AI benefits people who work with their hands to build data centers and create other AI infrastructure — including the chips that last week gave Nvidia a market capitalization of $4 trillion (and made Huang worth $144 billion, eclipsing Warren Buffett).

• Leading a show-and-tell in Nvidia's kitchen in downtown Washington, Huang pointed to a 70-pound Nvidia system that, when stacked in racks, helps power AI models. "It takes the love of manufacturing to build these things," he said. "There's just so much admiration for intellectual work in the United States. We need heroes who are making things."

👀 Behind the scenes: Huang, who was born in Taiwan, doesn't wear a watch. When we said we needed to wrap up the interview, he pulled up the sleeve of his trademark leather jacket to show off his bare wrist. He also keeps his phone on silent — the better to focus on the moment.

• IBM pioneer "Thomas Watson didn't care about the time, nor did Einstein care about the time," he explained. "The only time is right now. ... Because I'm here with you."

The bottom line: "The AI revolution," Huang told us, "is both an incredible technology — and the beginning of a whole new industrial reset."

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President Trump isn't ready to course-correct over how his administration has handled the Jeffrey Epstein evidence, Axios' Marc Caputo writes.

• But officials and advisers are considering at least three ways Trump could try to defuse an issue that, for the first time, has put him crosswise with his online MAGA base.

Why it matters: Everyone in the administration realizes this is a disaster — except perhaps Trump, who asserted in a rambling Truth Social post over the weekend that Epstein is "somebody that nobody cares about." That got him "ratioed" on his own platform, a first.

Here are three possible routes the White House is considering to try to mitigate the damage, based on conversations with administration officials and top outside advisers:

1. Appoint a special counsel or investigative team to review the Epstein case top to bottom, and produce a report.
2. Remove redactions to already released documents related to the late sex offender, perhaps at the direction of the special counsel or investigative team.
3. Petition courts that have sealed Epstein-related records to unseal them in cases in which the administration can't.

🎨 The big picture: These are ideas floating in MAGA's ether, but there's no consensus on how to proceed.

• There's general agreement not to proceed until Trump says to move forward. And right now, his Truth Social post is the policy: No more Epstein stuff.

"The president said to put this behind us, so we're putting this behind us," a top adviser said. "If he changes, then the policy changes. Period."

• Share this story ... Go deeper: "Gen Z MAGA wants results on Epstein," by Axios' Tal Axelrod.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump with FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the Club World Cup final yesterday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

• The stadium — where the New York Giants and Jets play — will also host next year's World Cup final.

Yesterday marked one year since the assassination attempt on Trump's life in Butler, Pa.

• Read Trump's full statement.

Former President Biden insisted to The New York Times in an interview published last night that he authorized the wide use of his signature via autopen at the very end of his presidency, Axios' Alex Thompson writes.

• Why it matters: Senate and House Republicans and President Trump's Justice Department are conducting investigations into how Biden's aging affected his ability to be president.

🔭 Zoom in: "I made every decision," Biden told The Times. He said he used the autopen on granting widespread clemency and pardons to particular groups because "we're talking about a whole lot of people."

• At the very end of his term, Biden took action to reduce jail time for almost 4,000 federal convicts.
• Many of those pardons and clemency actions were signed using an autopen — including those signed to pardon members of Biden's family, the Times reported.

Between the lines: Biden's 10-minute interview with The Times is his first interview with the paper since he became president in early 2021.

• Keep reading ... N.Y. Times excerpts (gift link).

President Trump will announce a new plan to arm Ukraine today that is expected to include offensive weapons, two sources with knowledge of the plans tell Axios' Barak Ravid.

• Why it matters: Sending offensive weapons would be a major shift for Trump, who had until recently been at pains to say he would provide only defensive weapons to avoid escalating the conflict.

U.S., Ukrainian and European officials hope the weapons will shift the trajectory of the war and change Russian President Vladimir Putin's calculations regarding a ceasefire.

• Two sources told Axios they had reason to believe the plan was likely to include long-range missiles that could reach targets deep inside Russian territory, including Moscow. However, neither was aware of any final decision.

The new initiative, which'll be rolled out in a meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, will involve European countries paying for U.S.-made weapons that will be sent to Ukraine.

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President Trump and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) will use a first-of-its-kind innovation summit in Pennsylvania tomorrow to announce $70 billion in AI and energy investments for the state, including thousands of new jobs, sources tell Mike.

• The inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, aims to ignite "Pennsylvania's incredible potential to power the AI revolution," McCormick says.

Why it matters: In addition to Trump's attendance, McCormick has drawn energy and AI leaders from around the world, including 60+ CEOs, to showcase the economic and national-security benefits of building AI infrastructure such as data centers and power generation.

🔬 Zoom in: McCormick will say the $70 billion in investment represents the "largest investment commitment in these industries in terms of dollars for the state and jobs created in the history of the Commonwealth," organizers tell Axios.

• "Anticipated investments include new data centers, new power generation and grid infrastructure to meet surging data center demand, along with AI training programs and apprenticeships for businesses," the preview says.

Blackstone president and COO Jon Gray will announce a $25 billion investment in data-center and energy infrastructure development in Northeast Pennsylvania.

• Partial list of attendees.

"Superman" opened with $122 million in domestic ticket sales over the weekend — the third-highest opening of the year.

• Why it matters: "The movie is a seminal moment in rebooting both DC Studios — which has struggled badly in recent years — and one of Hollywood's most iconic comic book film franchises," The Hollywood Reporter writes.

The movie, which stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel, also made $95 million internationally.

• Go deeper ... David Zaslav's triumph.