The tech industry that gave birth to artificial intelligence has spawned thousands in just 2023 because AI is the reason behind it.
AI has already raised alarm bells about its potential job-killers, but it is already wreaking havoc in the tech industries that gave rise to it.
According to data provided bylayoff.fyiThe tech industry will lay off 212,294 workers in 2023 alone, surpassing the 164,709 recorded in 2022.
Several tech companies have recently reviewed their new hires, citing AI as the reason behind massive layoffs. CNN report.
Education tech company Chegg to lay off 80 or 4% of its workforce “to execute on its AI strategy and better position the company to create long-term sustainable value for students and investors” clarified.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview with Bloomberg that the company may stop hiring in the next few years for jobs that could be replaced by AI.
But then he said, “AI will create more jobs than it will take.”
In April, file storage service Dropbox announced it would cut 16% of its workforce, citing AI as a reason.
Outplacement firm Challenger Gray and Christmas recently laid off 3,900 people because of AI in tech.
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston said in a memo to staff regarding the layoffs: Any of us could have predicted that.
“Our next phase of growth will require a mix of different skill sets, especially in AI and early-stage product development.”
But while Columbia Business School professor Dan Wang told CNN that “AI will cause restructuring,” he doesn’t believe AI will replace humans.
“In my view, AI will not necessarily replace humans, but rather enhance human work,” Wang said. “I think the race we should all be thinking about more is human specialists being replaced by human specialists who can leverage his AI tools.”
