The AI-Driven Job Crisis Has Already Arrived
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Popular language learning platform Duolingo presented 148 new courses created with generative AI and announced the replacement of contractors with machine learning technology with the goal of becoming an “AI-first” company. “It took us about 12 years to develop our first 100 courses, and now we’re able to create and launch almost 150 new courses in about a year. This is a great example of how generative AI can directly benefit our learners,” said Duolingo co-founder and CEO Luis von Ahn. Journalist Brian Merchant noted that the shift to AI isn’t really a new policy for Duolingo. The company laid off about 10 percent of its contractors at the end of 2023, and another series of layoffs took place in October 2024, a former employee said. In both cases, workers were replaced by artificial intelligence. Merchant also pointed to publication by The Atlantic about the unusually high unemployment rate among recent college graduates. Presumably, companies are applying AI instead of white-collar jobs. Total unemployment minus unemployment among recent graduates. Source: The Atlantic. “Almost every professional artist or illustrator I meet tells me that they have lost clients and jobs because of firms that have decided to turn to artificial intelligence instead of paying for human labor. Some have been forced out of their fields altogether,” Merchant emphasized. The crisis has arisen because of a series of management decisions made by executives seeking to cut payroll costs and consolidate control in their organizations, the journalist noted. This is evident in attrition in the creative industries, declining incomes for freelance artists, writers and illustrators, and the tendency of corporations to simply hire fewer workers. “The AI jobs crisis is not some SkyNet-style robot apocalypse, but the layoff of tens of thousands of federal employees waving the banner of the first AI strategy,” the expert added. Layoffs According to…
