One thing we know about the mass tech layoffs attributed to "AI" is that they follow a trend of mass tech layoffs that firms were formerly forced to admit were the result of their businesses contracting sharply after the lockdowns ended, when users didn't need nearly so many cloud services. By blaming the continuing layoffs on "AI," companies whose business continues to contract can tell investors that they are on the bleeding edge, not the contracting tail.
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In related news: yesterday, Block announced it was firing half its engineers to make a "big bet on AI."
Block used to be called "Square" and it had a very successful business as a payment processor. It changed its name to Block when it went all in on crypto.
Block's mass "AI" layoffs coincide with a *50%* drop in Bitcoin, with concomitant collapses in other cryptos. Crypto market watchers warn that the industry is so overleveraged that this could lead to total collapse.
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@pluralistic Bryan Cantrill, someone with a clue, judging Jack Dorsey, someone definitely without but good at failing upwards:
https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2022/11/05/twitter-when-the-wall-came-down/
"I, like many people, have a complicated relationship with Twitter. As Adam and I regaled in a recent Twitter Space, it started when debugging the Twitter fail whale in the offices of Obvious in 2007, where I became thoroughly unimpressed with their self-important skipper, Jack Dorsey. In part because I thought he was such a fool, I refused to join Twitter out of principle."
Cory Doctorow
Fazal Majid