Interestingly, Amazon explicitly said the layoffs were not related to AI. Most companies are jumping at the bit to claim AI is helping them reduce head cuts.
I have not looked into Google's mouthpiece yet
The AI is taking our jerbs thread
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Interestingly, Amazon explicitly said the layoffs were not related to AI. Most companies are jumping at the bit to claim AI is helping them reduce head cuts.
I have not looked into Google's mouthpiece yet
It's probably taking some "jerbs", but if you're lucky enough you use it as a tool to enhance your work and you'll see it isn't there yet and still needs checking, so there is value in you improving your knowledge and experience.
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Slow clap as they leave the buildings.
Thats the thing, if robots and AI replace workers. No one will be earning money to buy anything as they won't have a job. Therefore whats the point of robots and AI if they producing stuff nobody is there to buy!?!?!
Thats why I'm not fussed about this AI buzz.
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Companies seem to only think in the now/next quarter earnings. A large part of the economy is propped up by the minority portion of earners (higher end), and they already cutting back more an more.
Part of it is also down to poor financial literacy otherwise we'd see more focus on saving money and more companies going under, similar to what is happening with pubs.
Managers were the most impacted group from Amazon's recent layoffs
Internal Amazon data shows retail managers hardest hit by US job cuts. Employees worry AWS could be next.
Amazon's internal data shows severe impact on retail managers during layoffs. Some AWS employees express concern that cuts might come their way soon.
www.businessinsider.com
And this has nothing to do with AI. Companies have been greatly reducing middle management the mast few years.
I have already been impacted. I a technical director supporting a team of up to 20 people but kept close to the technology. Over time the team reduced to 10-12 or so and then i was highly encouraged to become an IC. I'm glad i did because my employer significantly cut back on management. They seem to want to jave managers with zero technical skills just do all the HR fluff for 20-30 people, with technical managers with smaller teams like myself either let go or offered IC roles. 3 other technical managers in my department had the same ultimatum. 2 have reverted to developers, one was laid off.
I don't see AI changing things here. I suspect this pattern will change in the future as it looks to be a disaster
Indeed- there's been a move to simply have technical and little in the way of longer term view. I do feel that some is down to the expectation that AI will be yet another silver bullet for IT cost, the rest is simply if you're not making larger investments you can cope with less middle management driven by delivery management now no longer being the conduit of information given if done right they can use AI through email scanning etc.
Reuters | Posted on 6 November 2025 said:
Further reading here: https://www.reuters.com/business/wo...decade-high-challenger-data-shows-2025-11-06/
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Amazon has shifted to selling a lot more cheap tat and junk. Its review system is broken and worthless. I'm amazing it hasn't collapsed. Who buys this stuff.
A few more thoughts I've had that might help others from someone from working over a decade in basic AI as per my prior post.
The real current issue isn't so much will AI take our jobs, which it will in many cases, but the fact that AI is already, right now deciding who even gets an interview, let alone a job. Almost all CVs and applications are now filtered at multiple stages by AI, it used to be by keywords, but they're under vastly more scrutiny with AI doing a massive amount of decision making and filtering out "undesireables".
20 years ago you could walk into any Reed employment store or similar that supported five people working there and get a decent paying, degree level job based on your physical presence and apptitude on in-person tests, even without a degree, as I did back then. That's now all gone along with all the subsidiary income it generated, lunches at cafes, etc. All replaced by AI, though the stores disappeared more in terms of mass internet adoption at that time.
Even in tech there used to be a lot more human involvement in recruitment at least in terms of emails and human evaluation which is now in some cases almost 100% AI. AI can now ask a candidate to describe an entity for 30 seconds and in that time with incredible accuracy can determine your fluency, competency, accent, likely level of education, age, gender, approximate IQ level, likely social class and emotional intelligence levels. The AI's decision after this utterance will be immediate and binding, not "we'll review things and get back to you on Monday". An AI absoutely will be the gateway to any kind of employment in many roles in a very quick timeframe.
As for the economics of AI? Mass AI adoption is in tandem with the concept of Universal Income, that would provide all citizens with a basic income level for survival, whether that person has a job or not. All wellfare systems and their vetting upkeep costs are transferred to Universal Income. Workers that receive it have more money to spend on luxuries in addition to their earned salaries, which in turn can help develop an economy that has lost perhaps as many as 50% of its jobs to AI. That is the basic economic concept of how humans will survive in an AI world, the basic theory is that goverments will have to have to look after a good deal of their citizens.
2000AD the comic hyposthesised this very well as far back as the late 70's with most citizens of Mega City One being unemployed on universal income due to AI and robotics. Many writers involved with that comic were genuises in terms of their future vision, there's no doubt. Also 2001 the movie, again a work of genius in its forethought for AI, that so brilliantly posed the question as part of its themes. What if AI goes bad? All the way back in 1969. Some of it gets boring, but the tech prediction parts are amazing.
I'm in process of trying to set up various small ventures that may or may not succeed, as others have said, AI in big business is a massive threat to any career development, being a captain of a small boat is likely better than walking the plank, so innovation and entrepreneurship via AI is going to be a solution for many, as well as having more than one role. It's also still true that high level call centres absolutely still need humans, for now, as I've experienced recently in trying to set up a charity asking HMRC's advice, though I've also experienced human incorrect information errors on the phone recently, something AI voice assistants should amend.
It's not just about hard skills either, AI now knows how to be charismatic and how to appeal to humans, final stage AI systems won't only be highly capable, they will be very charistmatic. One of the few areas of the movie Interstellar that I found scientifically satisfying was the TARS AI personality. Its easygoing competence is a good personality model for AI in high stress situations, even if so much of that movie is frustrating for me including TARS own robotics. Job seekers might also need to work more on charisma and social skills because AI can do a lot of that already very well without bias or nerves. Or it can have bias if you want it to.
Once advanced humanoid robotics meets a mass production standard, robotic AI home assistants will likely become popular, able to cook, clean, be a home guard, install bathrooms and other advanced DIY, perform basic medical assistance, etc, etc. Knowing human greed, all will held under various DLC packages and licences. Piracy and malicious hackers of such systems could even lead to some Terminatoresqe happenings.
Also have you ever felt invisible, or not recognised in society? AI is already refusing to recognise certain things based on specific directives it's given, even if it does really know what they are. Any kind of social points system used with visual recognition systems could be a very dystopian future.
My hope is that all humans should at least have free access to the finest AI medical systems as soon as they're available, and that their creators should be well paid by governments for their hard work. The biggest danger is private business and bad governments holding all the power in AI and doing bad practises like unrelenting paid DLC and various predatory tiers. I'm trying to set up some ventures to help ensure AI is kept as a basic human right in that regard.
The real current issue isn't so much will AI take our jobs, which it will in many cases, but the fact that AI is already, right now deciding who even gets an interview, let alone a job. Almost all CVs and applications are now filtered at multiple stages by AI, it used to be by keywords, but they're under vastly more scrutiny with AI doing a massive amount of decision making and filtering out "undesireables".
20 years ago you could walk into any Reed employment store or similar that supported five people working there and get a decent paying, degree level job based on your physical presence and apptitude on in-person tests, even without a degree, as I did back then. That's now all gone along with all the subsidiary income it generated, lunches at cafes, etc. All replaced by AI, though the stores disappeared more in terms of mass internet adoption at that time.
Even in tech there used to be a lot more human involvement in recruitment at least in terms of emails and human evaluation which is now in some cases almost 100% AI. AI can now ask a candidate to describe an entity for 30 seconds and in that time with incredible accuracy can determine your fluency, competency, accent, likely level of education, age, gender, approximate IQ level, likely social class and emotional intelligence levels. The AI's decision after this utterance will be immediate and binding, not "we'll review things and get back to you on Monday". An AI absoutely will be the gateway to any kind of employment in many roles in a very quick timeframe.
As for the economics of AI? Mass AI adoption is in tandem with the concept of Universal Income, that would provide all citizens with a basic income level for survival, whether that person has a job or not. All wellfare systems and their vetting upkeep costs are transferred to Universal Income. Workers that receive it have more money to spend on luxuries in addition to their earned salaries, which in turn can help develop an economy that has lost perhaps as many as 50% of its jobs to AI. That is the basic economic concept of how humans will survive in an AI world, the basic theory is that goverments will have to have to look after a good deal of their citizens.
2000AD the comic hyposthesised this very well as far back as the late 70's with most citizens of Mega City One being unemployed on universal income due to AI and robotics. Many writers involved with that comic were genuises in terms of their future vision, there's no doubt. Also 2001 the movie, again a work of genius in its forethought for AI, that so brilliantly posed the question as part of its themes. What if AI goes bad? All the way back in 1969. Some of it gets boring, but the tech prediction parts are amazing.
I'm in process of trying to set up various small ventures that may or may not succeed, as others have said, AI in big business is a massive threat to any career development, being a captain of a small boat is likely better than walking the plank, so innovation and entrepreneurship via AI is going to be a solution for many, as well as having more than one role. It's also still true that high level call centres absolutely still need humans, for now, as I've experienced recently in trying to set up a charity asking HMRC's advice, though I've also experienced human incorrect information errors on the phone recently, something AI voice assistants should amend.
It's not just about hard skills either, AI now knows how to be charismatic and how to appeal to humans, final stage AI systems won't only be highly capable, they will be very charistmatic. One of the few areas of the movie Interstellar that I found scientifically satisfying was the TARS AI personality. Its easygoing competence is a good personality model for AI in high stress situations, even if so much of that movie is frustrating for me including TARS own robotics. Job seekers might also need to work more on charisma and social skills because AI can do a lot of that already very well without bias or nerves. Or it can have bias if you want it to.
Once advanced humanoid robotics meets a mass production standard, robotic AI home assistants will likely become popular, able to cook, clean, be a home guard, install bathrooms and other advanced DIY, perform basic medical assistance, etc, etc. Knowing human greed, all will held under various DLC packages and licences. Piracy and malicious hackers of such systems could even lead to some Terminatoresqe happenings.
Also have you ever felt invisible, or not recognised in society? AI is already refusing to recognise certain things based on specific directives it's given, even if it does really know what they are. Any kind of social points system used with visual recognition systems could be a very dystopian future.
My hope is that all humans should at least have free access to the finest AI medical systems as soon as they're available, and that their creators should be well paid by governments for their hard work. The biggest danger is private business and bad governments holding all the power in AI and doing bad practises like unrelenting paid DLC and various predatory tiers. I'm trying to set up some ventures to help ensure AI is kept as a basic human right in that regard.
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I was thinking this too, everyone knows about the ATS for years.
They've been using "AI" long before the current hype around generative AI. (Granted rudimentary systems from the 90s that just involve databases and extracting key words arguably don't.)
Ranking, parsing, classification etc. (still largely keyword driven) all involve machine learning which is in turn a subset of AI. Modern "Generative AI" from the past few years is a subset of machine learning (specifically deep learning with neural nets and the attention mechanism - used to build both diffusion models for image generation and LLMs (large language models) for text).
In fact (AFAIK) most ATS systems are still predominantly using the "classic" ML techniques rather than the sort of generative AI being referred to in this thread. If they were to transition more to more recent models then keywords matter less, those models have a much better grasp of semantic similarity so can't be gamed so easily that way. Though I guess it does also open up the prospect of other potential angles to game them; perhaps statements that might be semantically similar to something that would be very desirable might help boost a CV in the eyes of a new ATS while avoiding an outright lie when read by a human.
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