They're all doing it - Microsoft, Google, Meta, Intel, Amazon - they're laying off human workers in order to invest in AI.
This year alone, the top tech companies have given the old heave-ho to some 64,000 employees, by some counts. And either they are doing it because they think that AI can take up the slack and replace them for a fraction of the cost, or (more likely) they just need the extra money to continue with the helter-skelter pace of investment in artificial intelligence that all tech companies are caught up in right now.
Specialist AU companies are leading the charge. OpenAI's Sam Altman believes that the next billion dollar company could consider of just one person (and a bunch of computers). Anthropic's Dario Amodei thinks that AI could eliminate up to half of all white collar jobs over the next five years. And they seem OK with this prospect. That's progress, eh?
It's estimated that, over the next few years, US$1 trillion will be invested in AI infrastructure, mainly by the likes of Microsoft, Amazon and Google. This, despite the fact that 80% of companies currently using AI technology are not yet seeing significant earnings gains, according to a recent report by McKinsey and Company. An eminent MIT economist is predicting that all this AI investment may lift the US's GDP by an underwhelming 1.1% - 1.6% over a decade, equivalent to as little as 0.05% per year.
And yet the hype keep coming, and the big money keeps flowing. Despite the above, tech stocks are booming - the share prices of Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms and Microsoft Corp have all surged in the past few months, anywhere from 18% to 35%, all on their AI claims.
AI, at the moment, is a runaway train. It's a leap of faith that all companies, but especially tech companies, are committed to. AI companies are riding bigh on the stock exchanges, and can seemingly do no wrong. However, nothing good ever comes of runaway trains (and rarely of leaps of faith). There are those who beleive that AI is currently going through the 1990s dotcom-bubble phase, and we know how that one went.
Some thinkers, even within the industry, are starting to warn that that this wholesale laying off humans is maybe not the way for AI companies to go, and will ultimately end in tears As has been pointed out many times before, AI is very good at what it does, but all it really does is copy and recognize patterns. True innovation comes from people, and those companies doing all the lay-offs now may well regret it in the future.
As one academic put it, "AI can only produce artificial creativity", i.e. it can support creative people, but not replace them. Of course, some companies, and some so-called visionaries, are betting that this changes and that's AI becomes truly innovative. If that is the case, then many people's goose is cooked. Become an apprentice, learn a trade, brush up your alternative CV.
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