You’ve seen the articles. Massive layoffs coupled with a company’s adoption of AI technology. They paint a bleak picture of the employment future for us humans. But they are lying. Lying with the truth, or at least with a combination of true facts.
While it is true that many companies are both making large capital investments in AI and laying off employees, the two are not directly correlated. AI isn’t replacing the work of the departing human workers. Company leaders have explicitly said so. But that doesn’t catch readers’ eyeballs. Correlation is enough to scare people into reading.
Cal Newport recently dubbed this phenomenon “Vibe Reporting”. (following him for more fun like “Digital Ick” and “Faux-stonishment”). We should name and shame this style of reporting and posting. It is intentionally deceptive and harmful. Aside from simply scaring everyone, something we could do with less of, its misinformation causes additional harm. Retail investors, job seekers, students, and business leaders who make decisions based on this false reporting are going to get hurt.
Leave a Reply