Titus 🇵🇸May 7, 2025
Brian Merchant

The AI jobs crisis is not coming—it's here right now. It just might not look like what many thought it would.

From Duolingo firing scores of writers and translators to the AI-first strategy that has helped justify thousands of federal workers to artists, illustrators, and freelancers seeing their incomes decline—the AI jobs crisis is here, now:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-ai-jobs-crisis-is-here-now

The AI jobs crisis is here, now

It's not coming, it has already arrived.

Blood in the Machine
May 6, 2025 at 8:23pmWeb
Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025

Last week, I spoke with a Duolingo contractor impacted by its 'new' AI strategy, and they clarified that

1) it's not new. Duolingo has *already* fired an estimated 100 writers and translators.

2) they worked for months training an AI system that still makes egregious mistakes.

Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025

I also spoke with an ex-employee of 18F, the federal agency gutted by DOGE. He noted that DOGE used its "AI-first strategy" and the hype around genAI in Silicon Valley to help justify their job-killing program.

*This* is the AI jobs crisis—not any far-off robot apocalypse.

Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025
The AI jobs crisis is not the mass displacement of millions of workers in one swoop—instead, it’s evident in the attrition in creative industries, the declining income of freelance artists, writers and illustrators, and in corporations’ inclination to hire fewer human workers.
Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025
The Atlantic's Derek Thompson wrote about a worrying trend in the economic data—the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is unusually high. One theory: Firms are hiring fewer grads into white collar jobs, and using more AI. This is what an AI jobs crisis might look like.
Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025
(His entire piece, which explores other possibilities for the trend as well, is here: https://theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/04/job-market-youth/682641/)
Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job Market

A new sign that AI is competing with college grads

The Atlantic
Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025
But I think it's clear at this point that the logic of generative AI has been adopted by everyone from Fortune 500 execs, tech oligarchs in the Trump administration, and middle managers in all kinds of industries. And it's being used to cut labor costs and consolidate control.
Show threadBrian MerchantMay 6, 2025
We’re at a crossroads where we must consider nothing less than what kind of work we want people to be able to do, and what we’re willing to do to fight—before the logic of generative AI and the crisis it has begotten guts them to the bone, or devours them altogether.
Show threadPaul LJul 25, 2025
@brianmerchant to claim cut costs…
Show threadBrian GrinterMay 6, 2025
@brianmerchant Note the first 1 star reviews for the Duolingo AI focus but nowhere near enough