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Comment by Simulacra | Hacker News Reader

Then why the layoffs???

Partially a contracting real economy following overhiring early in the decade, partially trying to discipline labor, partially a pretty profound disconnect from both market pressures and concrete metrics that comes from a business model more centered around stock value and funding raises than revenue per se

We've been moving to faith-based markets for decades - markets where belief and hope almost entirely replace quantifiable economic activity.

Outsourcing to India and the Philippines

There’s alway a bit of that going on, but ironically if AI does result in mass labor replacement India and the Philippines are likely going to be ground zero where workforces get wiped out first. They’re ripe with the kind of things that AI is, in theory, getting very good at.

I've always held the view that successfully using AI requires more knowledge and skill, as the burst radius of poor engineering decisions or lack of domain knowledge is way larger.

I just cannot see WITCH doing this without exponentiating the usual problems with outsourcing. I've seen some horrors. Can't wait for contractors wielding unprecedented chaos.

Good point, successfully using AI takes skill. If you'll please pardon me, I don't think your average GenZ knows how to properly use it. It takes someone who grew up with technology, who understands the fundamentals of technology, who understands the fundamentals of computational decision-making, that can really make use of ChatGPT etc. Someone raised on App Tap culture just isn't equipped to fully appreciate the technology. Not that they can't, it's just… The vast majority of them are hopeless with this.

Because there was bloat and AI was a good scape goat.

To juice the next quarter. Extreme short-term thinking has become the norm at every business I've worked at and every business I'm aware of, so upper management has no issue cutting teams right down to the bone.

It's why software has become far more unstable. There's nobody around to actually maintain it.

Capital reallocation.

In other words, moving money/spend from non-AI projects to AI projects/cost. This includes trimming the bottom X% of performers to reallocate that money too.

In most cases, it is not about current productivity or AI doing people's jobs.

Reducing opex to invest more into capex (at least for companies that can like MSFT etc)?

Trend following - everyone's jumping. And bad economy.

Typical bad management decisions that came home to roost. It’s a lot easier to say “AI productivity improvements” than for the CEO to say “I’m cleaning up terrible performance on my part and a lot of bad business decisions.”

The economy is shit. They make the layoffs but instead of saying we're scaling down, they present it as AI related productivity gains.

Just spin for not exactly bright small time stock holders.

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