I’m sure we’ve all seen the headlines that Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees. Regardless of their hiring numbers in the past few years, this is still a massive cut to their workforce. Why is this an issue for me? I was listening to a WSJ interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about the future of AI and one of the questions the interviewer asked was, and I’m paraphrasing, is the advancement of AI cause to worry about human replacement in jobs? And while Satya’s answer was very vague, saying something along the lines of “we want AI to benefit everyone,” it doesn’t make sense to me that they cut their workforce like this and also invest more and more into AI.
Microsoft is allegedly planning an investment of $10B into AI. I don’t know the specifics or time frame but it seems counterintuitive to cut all these jobs and put that money into automation, while bragging about AI improving the lives of everyone and dodging questions concerning working class people.
I don’t claim to be an expert on economics or AI, I’m just another worker who is concerned about automation and it overtaking my source of income.