How AI became the scapegoat for the current wave of mass layoffs
Labor experts reveal the truth behind AI job disruption, and why companies are so willing to cite AI as the excuse for slashing jobs.
https://www.fastcompany.com/91435784/how-ai-became-the-scapegoat-for-the-current-wave-of-mass-layoffs
When the AI bubble bursts ...They will have fewer people to pay off!
I think in few months Oracle will learn it in the hard way, when customers are dissatisfied with customers service and issues resolution and lack of real human response to their inquires.
The infrastructure companies are spending tons on GPUs for AI workloads. This necessitates savings in other areas. Payroll is always the first target for cost savings.
This is the reason for layoffs in Msft, AWS and Oracle.
@aa AI "ain't a person you can assign work to and likely never be" - oh boy have you tried calling your bank or credit union for help lately? How about your cable/internet/wireless provider?
Just TRY to get past the bot who can only talk and give you useless information when what you need is a human who can actually help you to correct whatever issue you are having with your service or account. I've had to call my providers to get help for issues and have had to hang up on them multiple times then call back with prompts that I HOPE will get me to someone who can help.
Yeah, you can't assign work to these things but it doesn't stop the companies from replacing real humans with a mindless bot.
@ae Hiring Freeze in Oracle. They laid off both on prem and OCI in India/Romania.
@bk A previous employer went through a series of layoffs. With each successive layoff the severance became less.
AI is used as a convenient justification for cutting costs, especially when companies announce layoffs or reduce expenses. There's little that can be done to challenge these decisions unless the government introduces new laws to discourage overall AI investment and development.
- Cal King PoPo 🛩👮🚓🚨🤣🤣🤣🤣
Of course.
One freaking toad who apparently thinks himself superior comes in and does not even have the brainpower to understand that this discussion is not workers making the observation, it is referring to companies or perhaps financial analysts saying this as a reason. Highly unlikely the noted person is from the US.
It seemed like every freaking day or two I had to communicate with someone of a similar limited intellect, and often they would not like so many questions and get frustrated as I tried to get us to a baseline of whatever it was they were reporting.
Also, have you seen the comments attached to the Barclay's recent downgrade of Oracle stock? Should look it up, they are noticing greatly impacted cashflow from the new debt incurred. In my mind, future severance packages might not be as generous.
The timing of the maximum package was perfect for me. Thanks LE!!
Of course.
People, especially tech workers, who have found themselves unemployable or with unmarketable skills, often look for scapegoats. After all, it is much easier to place blame elsewhere, instead of considering personal responsibility.
The speed at which companies such as Oracle needed to pivot to remain relevant is the factor in the layoffs. Since this whole business is a race to AI supremacy, beating China, growth and innovation at all costs, losing good workers is a calculated risk. So what are more senior laid off workers supposed to pivot to? get a new degree / apprenticeship / journeyman electrical job to help build out data centers? or start your own company- not easy pivots.
Just saying, we don't need to go this fast, because we're creating solutions for future problems, not current ones. Yes, I know it's in the human nature and capitalist spirit to move fast, compete and break things along the way, but the consequences on the labor market require time to transition.
I think it's a cover for offshoring.
As we see on the Slack head count threads, there is hiring now, Most likely it is offshore. Now some layoffs did occur in Romania and India, but I will bet they were on shrinking legacy products.
There's finally some back-lash stories from the media that poor cold water on the "AI is gonna ki-l jobs!" story.
The reason they're blaming AI is because the media has primed everyone to accept the story. It diverts attention away to any real mistakes made by over-hiring, or needing to cut costs for financial reasons.
I can't tell you how many sort of lower-level tech people I've talked to that are convinced, with zero evidence to back it up that nobody should go into any sort of tech or knowledge based field because all the jobs are going to be replaced with LLMs.
Then there's the reality of people that have used the things for real work. Neat tool, helps a bit for a few things, but it ain't a person you can assign work to and likely never will be.