人工智能的成本将成为大规模裁员的新借口。
大家总是谈论这样一种情况：例如，一个首席执行官解雇了五名开发人员中的三名，因为剩下的两名可以利用人工智能完成同样的工作。当这种情况发生时，人们会感到愤怒，因为这显然是企业贪婪的表现。你解雇员工只是为了通过不支付那些额外开发人员的工资来获取更多利润，而不是因为你负担不起他们。
但我一直在思考一个更糟糕的角度，这可能是我们即将面临的现实。
最近，我读到一些公司的人工智能账单每月高达数百万美元。一些小公司如果不削减成本，真的可能面临破产。为了维持运营而解雇三名开发人员，似乎不再是“贪婪”，而是生存，基本上是在避免倒闭。
你可以提出道德上的论点：“停止支付人工智能费用，保留人类员工”，但如今，很多人不愿意在不提供顶级人工智能工具的科技公司工作，因此你不得不为人工智能付费。
因此，这种情况设定了一个先例：裁员将不再被描述为“人工智能抢走了你的工作”，而将被描述为“我们实际上无法同时负担技术和人力，所以人必须走。”
这为高管们提供了一个完美的盾牌来应对负面公关。他们可以指着一张巨额的OpenAI或Anthropic账单说：“看，要么裁员，要么我们破产，然后就得裁掉所有人。”这使得人类成为唯一可以被裁减的对象（而不是减少人工智能的使用）。
我们陷入了一个奇怪的循环：你需要人工智能来保持竞争力，而人工智能的成本又高得离谱，因此你不得不解雇那些最初需要人工智能的人，或者他们可能根本就不会接受这份工作。
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So everyone always talks about the scenario where for example a CEO fires 3 out of 5 devs because the remaining 2 can just use AI to do the same amount of work. When that happens, people get pissed because it’s obvious corporate greed. You’re firing people just to make more profit by not having to pay those extra devs, not because you can't afford them.<p>But I’ve been thinking about a different angle that’s way more messed up and likely where we are heading soon.<p>Just recently, I've read about companies that had monthly AI bills get into millions of dollars. Some smaller companies could really be facing bankruptcy if they don't cut costs. Firing 3 devs just to keep the lights on then stops looking like "greed" and looks like survival, basically avoiding going out of business.<p>You could make a moral argument "just stop paying for the AI and keep the human workers," but not many will want to work at a tech company today that doesn’t provide top tier AI tooling, so you kind of have to pay for AI...<p>So here’s the precedent this sets: Layoffs won't be framed as "AI is stealing your job" anymore instead they’re going to be framed as "we literally cannot afford both the tech and the people, so the people have to go."<p>It gives executives the perfect shield against bad PR. They can just point at a massive OpenAI or Anthropic invoice and say "look, it was either lay people off or we go bankrupt and then lay off everyone." It turns humans into the only thing that can actually be cut. (instead of cutting AI usage)<p>We're trapped in this weird loop where you need the AI to stay competitive, the AI costs a fortune, so you have to fire the humans who needed the AI in the first place or likely won't even take the job.