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AI technology could push humanity forward, but many people fear that it will push humanity into the unemployment line. This is what’s occupying more people’s minds as AI gains the ability to automate more and more tasks. Now, tens of thousands of Google employees fear that they’re going to be replaced by the same AI that’s paying their paychecks.
This is still a developing story, and we’re still waiting for more information from Google. So, we’ll keep you updated on what happens. Google is a large ad company, and it has a massive ad sales division consisting of more than 30,000 employees. Reportedly, the company is looking to eventually use various AI tools to help boost productivity internally.
While AI isn’t as smart as a human being in certain ways, it’s still smart in other ways, and it has the ability to perform tasks much faster than a human being. This is what’s putting the fear of unemployment into many people. So, the company switching to using AI tools has led to some anxiety within the company.
Thousands of Google employees fear being replaced by AI
The fear’s only growing because, according to The Information, Google told its employees that it’s going to be reorganizing its ad sales business. Sure, that’s not outright telling the employees “Pack your stuff”, but it still has many employees on their toes. Also, we can’t deny that when many companies cut jobs, they refer to it as “reorganizing” or “restructuring” certain departments. It’s a way of sugarcoating the harsh facts.
As noted in the report, about 45% of the 30,000 employees in the ad sales department are working on projects that have been simplified by AI. This means that nearly half of the people in the unit are working on projects that could easily be taken over by Bard or Gemini.
If the company does downsize its employees for the sake of efficiency, it’ll really throw a wrench into the company’s whole “Developing AI responsibly” spiel. Earlier this year, the company made a big deal about how its AI technology won’t negatively impact people. Well, does this extend to the people working at the company? This is what we’re all wondering.
We’ll just need to wait and see what the company is doing. It, unfortunately, seems likely because companies are cutting jobs left and right. Intel recently cut hundreds of jobs.