alt Hacker NewsI still think AI is just a cover story for these job cuts. Tech companies are still "rightsizing" after unsustainable growth during the pandemic. At the same time we're clearly headed into a recession.
Investors like growth, not shrinkage. Claiming AI is replacing those jobs helps avoid the appearence of shrinkage, while also feeding the AI hype machine that many of these companies have invested heavily into.
Nobody ever knew what the right size was. There was a valve that was opened to allow hiring. And another "bung" that could be unplugged to facilitate firing. The algorithm was to open the valve when times are good/money cheap/greed is good, and opened the bung in other times. Totally decoupled from how many people (and largely what sort of people) are required. AI has changed that mechanism.