Enter AI, Chat GPT and Pave the Way For the Withering of All Jobs?

Bengaluru: A few decades ago, the Dot. coms came with a big bang. Later, television channels made an entry, first the Hindi, later English and subsequently regional language channels, initially Entertainment, followed by Infotainment and finally 24X7 News channels. An impression was floated that it would also be the end of print media, or newspapers. Such a psychology prevailed among the working scribes then. However, it took some time for the bubble to settle down, and all such fears were proved unwise. Now, a much more dangerous trend has set in, in the form of AI and ChatGPT.

Kicking off a plan to affect as many as 30,000 corporate jobs! Aki Ito, a chief correspondent at Business Insider, reports: A collective shudder ran down the spine of America's white-collar workforce. Amazon announced it's laying off 14,000 employees in a memo that cited AI, kicking off a plan that is expected eventually to affect as many as 30,000 corporate jobs...

...AI's capabilities to shrink its white-collar workforce: CEO Andy Jassy had hinted this was coming back in June, when he said that AI's capabilities would allow Amazon to shrink its white-collar workforce in the future. But he'd framed that future as "the next few years." I figured Amazon would get there the same way it had already been: by hiring very little and quietly cutting a few teams here and there...

...AI workforce strategy from slow attrition to full throttle! Apparently, Amazon is done waiting. It's shifted its AI workforce strategy from slow attrition to full throttle. And with that, it's ushering in a new era of post-ChatGPT corporate America: the age of mass AI layoffs...

...The company needs to free up a lot of cash, fast: Why the sudden leap? One obvious factor that went unmentioned in the announcement is Amazon's position in the ever-heightening winner-takes-all AI race. It's scrambling to keep up with Microsoft and Google's cloud businesses, which are growing faster than its own. In its push to hire more AI experts and build more data centres, the company needs to free up a lot of cash, fast. Executives don't think they have the luxury to wait a few years to do that slowly...

...Difficult questions Amazon's displaced workers face today: But what we're seeing now from Amazon is pure chaos. Some 30,000 of its employees (according to Reuters) will soon be competing for an already-shrunken pool of white-collar jobs — and they'll be in a market that's only going to get more crowded with unemployed professionals as other businesses adopt the Amazon playbook. Will these workers find comparable roles, or will they have to start over in new careers? Will they keep their salaries, or take steep pay cuts that hobble their earning potential for years to come? These are just the first of the difficult questions Amazon's displaced workers face today — and many more of us will face in the months and years ahead, Aki Ito signs off.

A very alarming matter: Anirudh Morab, a software professional, sums up the Indian predicament. He asserts, "The matter is very much alarming. The other day, I met a close relative of mine who works for Tech Mahindra. He told me that the figure of just 12,000 job losers in TCS is not correct. It is beyond any imaginable number. My own survey for alternative jobs reveals that out of 74 opinion givers, exactly 70 expressed the view that advanced agriculture will only come to the rescue of job losers. Let us not lose hope and hope for the best...

...Highest profits, but do not want people: What is even more alarming is that these companies have reached their highest profits, but do not want people working for them. The rich are getting super rich, but the middle class and the poor are stuck".

Going on for centuries: Krishna V Itnal, septuagenarian Gandhian and a former Administrative Officer of the LIC, analyses the piquant situation in his own way, "This has been going on for centuries. Karl Marx and Faedric Engels, in recent history, introduced the concept of communism to mitigate the hardships of the poor and the working class. After the fall of communism in Russia and China, the old story of the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer has again raised its head. For me, the solace or the positive result appeared in the concept of Sarvodaya, wherein we see the job of a barber on equal footing to an advocate. This is much equality in the Sarvodaya concept...

...Pontiffs are doing nothing! At the same breath, he laments, "Unfortunately, pl forgive me if I am wrong, the pontiffs of all religions are not working to mitigate this gap. On the contrary, they are also after wealth. Ultimately, one has to struggle hard to maintain a life of decency; that is the reality".

Agriculture remains the only hope: Krishna V Itnal is very optimistic with a fond hope of agriculture being the only way out alternative and solution. He becomes affirmative by saying that, "jobs are not created. Whether it is youths or elders, they have to seriously think about new avenues wherein they can create new jobs on a mass scale. Since nearly 50 per cent of our population is still dependent on agriculture, I think, this is the only field of hope. Along with agriculture, sheep breeding, poultry farming, Animal husbandry, Horticulture, Sericulture, these are the fields where subsidiary jobs can be created, alongside agriculture. But as of this date, no prospects are seen, or the administration is not seriously thinking about unemployment mitigation. Let us not be desperate to lose hope".

Are there any takers? For argument's sake, all of them, Aki Ito, Anirudh Morab, and Krishna V. Itnal, are absolutely right in their defence of the viewpoints. However, sadly and pathetically, the traditional peasant families have lost all interest in farming for their own valid reasons. They lament, these days, growing crops for a livelihood has become worse than gambling! Thanks to unpredictable weather conditions, unforeseen market conditions, and no takers during bumper crops, it has led to a nightmare-like situation. Even forgetting all these odds, these days getting workers for farm holdings has become a hilarious task, and no one knows the way out!

-Manohar Yadavatti

Images Courtesy: ChatGpt