We're going through a period where a "disrupter" is large in the land.
That "disrupter" is AI. Companies believe that AI will do a lot of work that was previously done by workers. This may, or may not, come to pass, but it's a real factor that is influencing HR decisions. So let's be careful about castigating corporate management. They're making a business bet, and they may be betting wrong--or right. We'll see. It's not always "those billionaires" or "corporate greed."
We joke about how Henry Ford put the buggy whip manufacturers out of business. But consider the 1990s: Nobody had the slightest idea--except industry insiders and visionaries--about how the internet would change world culture, commerce, politics, everything. Jeff Bezos did. Others were slower to catch on. Now we take all that for granted. What will AI do? Lots! The question is, who will program how AI will gain info and use it. Already I see how when I do a search, it gives me distinctly left-of-center-tilted info. That, hopefully, will be fixed, but I'm not optimistic. I fear for my children and the web (pun intended) of info that will be served them.
I agree that AI is going to be a HUGE disruptor, in the future, but not quite yet. So, when those big companies claim they are laying off folks because of AI they are, quite frankly, FOS. They are laying them off because they over hired, or their business isn't going as well as they would like us all to believe, etc. and AI is just their excuse so that they don't have to admit to what the real problem is.
Don't get me wrong, it's coming, and soon, and it's going to be a sea change for sure. At some point in the future a LOT, maybe even most, jobs being done by humans today will be replaced by AI in some form or another including AI driven robots. I'm guessing that 30 or 40 years from now, we will be living in a country where the majority of the population will not be able to find a job. Then what? Yes, yes, SOME new jobs maintain/training AI, etc. will be created, but that will be a relatively small number of jobs. Our unemployment rate will pale that of the Great Depression. Then what? Civil unrest could very possible occur unless we make moves now to deal with our possible future it might get ugly.
One solution that's been floated is universal basic income. But that would be a huge change in our society, and those things don't come easily.
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