A Machine Learning Engineer Thought He Was Safe From AI Layoffs. Then He Got Some Depressing News

Getty / Futurism Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Email address Sign Up Thank you! While the exact impact of AI on the job market remains hazy at best, ongoing fears that an AI-triggered job apocalypse is nigh are coming to a boiling point. Last week, Twitter cofounder and Block (formerly Square) CEO Jack Dorsey announced that he was firing 4,000 employees at his fintech company, informing investors that “intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company.” “A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better,” he added, asserting that the “majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes.” Dorsey’s missives sent shivers down the spines of already on-edge investors. That’s despite critics continuing to question claims like Dorsey’s, arguing that AI simply isn’t capable of fulfilling human jobs and that AI is simply being used as an excuse to enact brutal layoffs. Regardless of Dorsey’s real intentions, his latest decision to sack half of his company hit workers hard. That’s despite early warning signs, as one former Block machine learning engineer told Business Insider, that their tasks were slowly but surely being made redundant by the tech. “At some point you look around and say, ‘Gosh, I’m not doing that much of the work anymore, am I?'” the worker, identified only as Kenji, said. “It certainly dawned on m...