The layoffs are coming. “Experts” in the media are not sure yet what the impact will be, but they talk about it as if it could be anything from a nothing burger, to catastrophic.

At my company (which makes software and content), we have been using AI for a couple of years already on the content front. We would not create content without AI at this point. We have humans in the loop, but executives are asking us to push those limits. I have also personally worked on AI projects that have meant we didn’t have to hire as many contractors. That is not exactly a layoff, but it is a job that might have existed otherwise.

AI costs money. I assume that as with the cloud, we will figure out over time how to make this affordable to companies, how best to use our tokens, etc.. But there is no question in my mind that executives are already looking at the cost of AI, feeling the pressure to move to AI, and offsetting that cost by cutting the human chaff.

I have heard a few interviews now with Alex Bores (Ezra Klein, and Offline with Jon Favreau) who is running for Congress in NY and has some common sense ideas for AI regulation that we should be considering. An AI super PAC is trying to take him out. One of my main takeaways is that there are some pretty simple things we can do to protect the people against the billionaires and we need to be doing that right now.

Like the experts, I don’t know how bad it will get. What I am seeing is that there is still a need for humans and for expertise. But the people at the top, who don’t understand how any of this works, are hungry to get rid of the burden of employing so many humans. They will cut people, and cut people, those who still have jobs will become more and more miserable, and eventually there will need to be a re-balancing. Please, can we just stop it before it gets even worse.