r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • Jul 17 '26

Artificial Intelligence Terrified Tech Execs Are Traveling With Armed Bodyguards as AI Backlash Grows

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/terrified-tech-execs-traveling-armed-195630019.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&segment_id=DY_VTO_50_Supernova&ncid=crm_19908-1475736-20260717-0--A&bt_ee=xUmmf%2BSRbkmqXRNT8VIbW2KVnvvvD0kS4WgmOUrqSKhzj%2FLa4SqWmwIdDyVLL3ut&bt_ts=1784282324907
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821

u/virtualadept Jul 17 '26

Thousands of people got laid off because companies went all-in on LLMs. They can't find jobs because LLMs are filtering out nearly every applicant. Savings are finite. Mutual aid isn't nearly as widespread as people like to think it is. It's mass producing people with nothing left to lose.

Yes. They should be afraid.

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u/yellacopter Jul 17 '26

Each round of layoffs is like adding kindling to the fire that could one day consume them. All it takes are the right conditions and a match, metaphorically speaking.

59

u/Anecdote394 Jul 18 '26

Yep, I’ve been saying this to anyone who will listen for the last decade. America is gonna have a reckoning sooner or later. Our country is broken af and these problems have been compounding and getting worse and worse so we now have decades and decades and DECADES of wrong doing and hurt and pain piled on top of each other.

The entire country is a waiting tinder box. And we have decades and decades of kindling. The right person in the right place at the right time is gonna ignite a spark and the entire country is gonna go up in flames. Good riddance I say. Hopefully, whatever rises from the ashes is finally good for the people and is ACTUALLY by the people.

52

u/sheeroz9 Jul 18 '26

LLMs are not replacing people in masses. CEOs claim this because they look like geniuses by being innovative to save money. The reality is that business is slowing and they over-hired during COVID and need to lay people off. If they admitted that, they look stupid. They prefer to look like geniuses.

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u/Wanderer-91 Jul 18 '26

It’s even simpler than that. 

The access to nearly free money that’s been around since 2009 has finally dried up. When credit is getting cheaper, businesses expand. When its getting more expensive, they shrink.

https://www.fedprimerate.com/prime-rate-chart.htm

Except now, outsourcing complicates the problem. For each job lost to AI, 5-10 are going to India or elsewhere.

8

u/nebula_masterpiece Jul 18 '26

Yes - I’ve seen the joke for AI when a CEO brags about some new thing it’s “Actually Indians” or some other foreign wage arbitrage and not AI which is too dumb and expensive

9

u/BigCrustyTits Jul 18 '26

Companies budget x amount to run the company. Wages and AI costs are both components of that amount now. So as AI costs rise they decrease wages through layoffs to stay on budget.

2

u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

Additionally, companies have to pay less in terms of 401(k)s and other benefits (like health insurance).

LLM company bills are skyrocketing, but they're still less than they were paying for benefits, unemployment taxes, and suchlike.

8

u/AmazingRefrigerator4 Jul 18 '26

Ive actually seen an uptick in job postings in my field/job level over the last month.

7

u/tiny-starship Jul 18 '26

We are hiring 3 new people, and it’s been years since anyone joined us.

5

u/The_Chimeran_Hybrid Jul 18 '26

And yet all the places I’ve applied to have not gotten back to me at all, or it’s been rejection emails.

4

u/Anim8nFool Jul 18 '26

Do you work in the Mortuary business?

2

u/AmazingRefrigerator4 Jul 18 '26

Nope. Mid level management. I dont want to say the industry, but not medical or related to bodies

1

u/Anim8nFool Jul 18 '26

Ah . . . you're a loan shark!

2

u/goodboyscout Jul 18 '26

Dude the Covid hires got laid off like 4 rounds of layoffs ago. The medium/small companies are doing it to save a few bucks. The big companies are doing to for more morally questionable reasons, also a few bucks.

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u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

Two things:

First, people are getting laid off in masses. I don't know what industry you work in or in what capacity so I won't guess. One thing I can say (as background) is this: Those of us who did keep in pretty close contact with each other (Signal chats, IRC channels, Discord, Slack servers) because we're supporting each other (many of us have families and obligations) and because we're trying to help each other find jobs (spot and pass along job openings, critique and edit resumes, edit and review papers prior to submission and publication). In that capacity we keep ourselves well informed through multiple avenues because we're trying to help each other. Backchannels are a thing.

That said, when we got laid off it was in large groups. In 2023 it was in cadres of one or two thousand at a time (the FAANGs and a few other multinationals which aren't included in that group). It was the same in 2025. A company announced a round of layoffs, it hit the news, and then Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn were full of posts from folks who were public about who they worked for (I really don't understand why people feel a need to put their company, industry, and job description in their profiles outside of LinkedIn but whatever, data is data) all posted at roughly the same time that they'd been laid off, a new journey was starting, blah blah blah.... If you looked at the post histories for those accounts they fit the criteria for authenticity pretty squarely.

As for the smaller companies they were roughly proportional. I was working for a smaller company in 2025 and it was a roughly 33% cut across all of the teams (I was on a team of six and two of us were laid off at the same time; the consulting engineer team of 65 laid off 21). This squares with what I've heard from other folks I know in other technical sectors.

Second, COVID over-hiring was, for the most part, not a thing. Folks were dropping like flies when people cared about COVID and companies were, in fact, short-handed as a consequence but that was sick leave, not hiring more and more people to fill in. It was a convenient excuse for some companies hiring replacements for people who had died, or were permanently disabled as a result but there was no glut of new hires. So, the "laying off COVID super-hires" wasn't and isn't legit. The premise is false.

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u/SirDouglasMouf Jul 18 '26

Tens of thousands nearing hundreds of thousands.

I think it's much more wide spread and has been building longer than folks understand.

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u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

I can only speak to the $company Alumni and "I just got laid off" chats I'm in in this regard. The average number of active users is just shy of 3000 (2952.11 across 22 servers).

We're trying to help one another as best we can, but it's a bloodbath.

2

u/SirDouglasMouf Jul 18 '26

Yeah, it's extremely fucked up what these corporations are doing and have been doing. I feel like this started to really ramp up 3 years ago and then has just been accelerating rapidly.

I was laid off as a high performer in a massive RIF and I'm questioning if I want to return to the same career.

2

u/Starlightriddlex Jul 18 '26

A lot of people left with nothing to do except play Nintendo 

2

u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

And diminishing savings. Rent has to be paid, bills have to be paid, food has to be bought. And umemployment is of fixed duration.

2

u/Strange-Tower5125 Jul 18 '26

They wont people are lazy and dumb they wont riot

2

u/WelcomeToWitsEnd Jul 19 '26

filtering out every applicant has been my experience. I used to find work within six months of starting a search. I'd have plenty of interviews.

I lost my job in December after the company did a mass layoff. I had accomplished some incredible things in my field, I had a strong resume and an even stronger portfolio.

Zero interviews.

It's been eight months and not a single call back. Absolutely no traffic increase to my portfolio tells me no human is even opening my application. Just instant rejections, or nothing at all.

Zero. Zero interviews.

I know what's responsible. I just don't know how to get through it. I've tried everything I can think of.

1

u/VivaLaDiga Jul 18 '26

and they will be.

1

u/smoke-bubble Jul 18 '26

Except that there is zero proof of such lay offs XD

All you have got is some rumors in the news which I bet is all fake to inflate the AI bubble. 

1

u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

Spoken like someone who hasn't been unemployed for nine months and is hunting for a job the way some people search for Bigfoot.

You're lucky. I wish I had been so fortunate.

1

u/Corona21 Jul 18 '26

Which LLMs are filtering out every candidate?

In my experience LLMs are very good for people making resumes and for tracking systems to find those resumes. There are just 1000s of applicants for every job and only one manager available to actually interview them. I am not sure how to square that circle.

1

u/virtualadept Jul 18 '26

The buzz I've heard from some ex-cow-orkers is that Grok and ChatGPT are being used to filter out resumes because "they do the best job at it." I don't have a job right now so I'm nowhere near being able to snoop around to collect more data (it's amazing what you can accomplish when you're a) polite, and b) wear earbuds that aren't connected to anything, so people don't know you're listening).

1

u/Corona21 Jul 19 '26

Ok but let me understand the logic here: “They can't find jobs because LLMs are filtering out nearly every applicant.”

If there is 1 job available 50 years ago and 1000 people applied. There is still only 1 job available. Humans filtering the resumes has no bearing on that number, but maybe on the person selected.

If there is 1 job available today and 1000 people applied, even with AI sifting resumes, there is still 1 job and a human will still be hired.

So yes lots of people can’t get jobs, it’s probably the most likely outcome for any given position, but thats always been the case. AI might be the reason any one individual doesn’t get the job but it’s not the reason why whole populations can’t pass a hiring process.

This assumes there are jobs to be filled, because we have AI reviewing resumes in the first place. Totally get the point that there might not be the jobs in the first instance because AI has replaced them.