A lot of recent news of layoffs with tech companies. Intel's vice president of manufacturing, Naga Chandrasekaran, sent a memo to employees stating that the company planned on slashing its workforce by 15 to 20% (which would be about 16,000 to 22,000 jobs), although it was not clear whether those cuts would be at U.S. based factories. This comes on the heels of Microsoft announcing further layoffs (in addition to the 6,000 in May) and Amazon that it would be reducing the size of its work forces. Although the article didn't state what type of jobs were being eliminated, it did indicate that investments in AI and automation were behind it. Microsoft's layoffs are also being driven in part by AI, but also by an effort to use third-party firms to handle more sales of software to small and mid-size customers.
The article about Amazon also mentioned:
Earlier this month Procter & Gamble, which makes diapers, laundry detergent, and other household items, announced it would cut 7,000 jobs, or about 15 percent of non-manufacturing roles.
As well as cutting jobs, P&G said it will divest a number of its businesses and restructure the organization, chief financial officer Andre Schulten said at a conference earlier this month.
Part of this reorganization will involve more automation and digitization, as well as cutting down management teams, he said.
I'm always suspicious with these large layoffs, as it's common practice when you have failed projects and losses. All those wages you suddenly don't have to pay help the earnings report look pretty for the board and investors (or in this case, makes the slow, ponderous androids look less expensive). I guess we'll see if the AI can earn its keep and if they've invested in purpose-built robots that can actually do their job or if they have more rounds of layoffs to cover that mistake.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the amount of money they are pouring into AI, they had better hope it can earn its keep.
DeleteA.I. It's writing 30% of code for Microsoft now, I bet it'll be 80% by next year.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that is the answer to why applications become more annoying to use over time but with no increase in performance. I noticed that whereas my Kindle app used to allow you to simply highlight a word to get a definition, you now have to go through an extra step to get to the definition.
Delete