New York state has required companies to disclose if "technological innovation or automation" was the cause of job loss for nearly a year. Over 160 companies in New York state have filed notices of mass layoffs since last March. None--in a group that includes Amazon, Goldman Sachs, and other employers that are adopting AI tools --attributed their workforce cuts in those filings to "technological innovation or automation." That option was added 11 months ago to a required question on paperwork that businesses with 50 or more employees must file with the state to notify of sizable job losses. New York's Department of Labor told WIRED that, as of the end of January, no employer had marked tech as the reason for their workforce reduction.

The AI job cuts are here - or are they? Amazon's move this week to slash thousands of corporate jobs fed into a longstanding anxiety: that Artificial Intelligence is starting to replace workers. The tech giant joined a growing list of companies in the US that have pointed to AI technology as a reason behind layoffs. But some question whether AI is fully to blame - and have voiced scepticism that recent high-profile layoffs are a telling sign of the technology's effect on employment. Chegg, the online education firm, cited the new realities of AI as it announced a 45% reduction in workforce on Monday.

Is artificial intelligence to blame for Amazon job cuts? Multinational technology company Amazon is laying off about 14,000 employees, the company has confirmed . A message sent out to staff on the company's website followed media reports that the group was planning 30,000 job cuts. News of the layoffs on Tuesday came just a few months after CEO Andrew Jassy said the rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) technology was likely to s pell job cuts . He also launched an "inefficiencies initiative" in which he invited workers to report unnecessary bureaucracy and inefficiencies that could be targeted for cost savings.

Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Men, you may have heard, are in crisis. The causes are many, and the left and right identify different villains (toxic masculinity, according to the former; feminism and gynecocracy, says the latter). But there seems to be a growing consensus that something is rotten in man-land. And across the political spectrum there is at least a consensus that male despair and disconnect is fueled in large part by dramatic changes in society, the economy, and the family--all of which have left many men feeling dangerously unmoored, isolated, and purposeless.

As artificial intelligence and robotics increasingly reshape the global labor market, understanding public perceptions of these technologies becomes critical. We examine how these perceptions have evolved across Latin America, using survey data from the 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2023 waves of the Lati-nobar ometro. Drawing on responses from over 48,000 individuals across 16 countries, we analyze fear of job loss due to artificial intelligence and robotics. Using statistical modeling and latent class analysis, we identify key structural and ideological predictors of concern, with education level and political orientation emerging as the most consistent drivers. Our findings reveal substantial temporal and cross-country variation, with a notable peak in fear during 2018 and distinct attitudinal profiles emerging from latent segmentation. These results offer new insights into the social and structural dimensions of AI anxiety in emerging economies and contribute to a broader understanding of public attitudes toward automation beyond the Global North.

Workers in the UK should turn their trepidation over AI into "exhilaration" by giving it a try or they risk being left behind by those who have, the technology secretary has said. Peter Kyle called on employees and businesses to "act now" on getting to grips with the tech, with the generational gap in usage needing only two and a half hours of training to bridge. Breakthroughs such as the emergence of ChatGPT have sparked an investment boom in the technology, but also led to forecasts that a host of jobs in sectors ranging from law to financial services will be affected. However, Kyle said: "I think most people are approaching this with trepidation. Once they start [using AI], it turns to exhilaration, because it is a lot more straightforward than people realise, and it is far more rewarding than people expect."

In a wide-ranging report analysing the benefits and threats posed by AI to the UK's film, TV, video game and visual special effects industries, the BFI also raises fears that automation will eliminate the entry-level jobs that bring in the next generation of workers. It says the "primary issue" facing the 125bn industry is the use of intellectual property (IP) to train generative AI models without payment to, or permission from, rights holders. The UK creative industries want to see an "opt-in" regime, forcing AI companies to seek permission and strike licensing deals before they can use content, and the government is currently in the process of considering what legislation to put in place. "AI offers significant opportunities for the screen sector such as speeding up production workflows, democratising content creation and empowering new voices," said Rishi Coupland, director of research and innovation at the BFI. "However, it could also erode traditional business models, displace skilled workers, and undermine public trust in screen content."

Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we're all going to be bosses – of AI employees. The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a "frontier firm", where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks. Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss. "As agents increasingly join the workforce, we'll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI," wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blogpost this week.

Artificial intelligence could displace between 1m and 3m private sector jobs in the UK, though the ultimate rise in unemployment will be in the low hundreds of thousands as growth in the technology also creates new roles, according to Tony Blair's thinktank. Between 60,000 and 275,000 jobs will be displaced every year over a couple of decades at the peak of the disruption, estimates from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) suggest. It described the figure as "relatively modest" given the average number of job losses in the UK has run at about 450,000 a year over the past decade. More than 33 million people are employed in the UK. AI, a technology that can be loosely defined as computer systems performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, has shot up the political agenda after the emergence of the ChatGPT chatbot and other breakthroughs in the field.

Recently Jon Stewart did a segment poking satire at the promises of AI highlighted by tech CEOs. I don't think automating your toasters is the best way to show the potential of AI, as Jon did, but I do agree with the central premise of his argument that disruption caused by AI will be harnessed to prioritize profits over people. It will likely cause one of the largest and fastest labor displacements in human history. I run an AI company based in Silicon Valley focused on solving climate change, and I am a former policymaker for the government of India. At the World Economic Forum Davos 2024, my discussions with media, heads of state, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies underscored global perspectives on AI, where AI was widely discussed to unlock the next productivity revolution, foster wealth creation, and uplift people out of poverty by democratizing and reducing the cost of access to information/education.