Across the private and public sector, we’re witnessing heads of organisations treat employees that are responsible for their success as burdens to be replaced with AI.
Using tools vs. being tools
The common trait I’ve observed is that those in leadership do not understand the jobs they want to replace with AI. They perceive workers as automatons rather than independent decision-makers whose input creates their success.
These executives are under the delusion that the strength of their deliverables was the result of decision-making from the top – not recognizing that what they offer is at best vague plagiarized guidance.
It’s the difference between a child’s drawing of a car and the real thing. The drawing did not engineer the engine, the style, the performance, etc. That’s where the hard work actually lies, where the impactful decisions are made – not at the top but at the bottom. This is where credit is due for whether that executive gets their bonus. AI can assist but not substitute in this process, because AI can only derive.
People are individual contributors embracing ever-evolving tools, not tools in of themselves. Swapping them outright with tools like AI may make numbers go up on some sheet, but it will be to the detriment of the deliverables.
Revealing true colours
Still, this AI boom is letting CEOs shown their true colours about workers.
We had started to see it with the post-pandemic mass-layoffs and then sucking up to the Trump regime. CEOs were killing diversity and inclusion and increasing workloads on employees. Now they’re openly maligning staff:
Andy Yen, the CEO of Proton, had a message for an employee in the company’s security Slack channel who urged the company to at least take a few days to pentest newly written code before pushing it live. “That’s bullshit and loser thinking. Of course it’s possible to be fast and secure,” Yen wrote in the channel at the end of August. “Stop thinking always of how to be slower, and focus more on how to be faster.”
In a follow-up message, Yen reiterated his point: “only losers think like that.” His ultimate message for the team was to “stop lovingly handcrafting all our code and use AI more.”
Manifestos, Fear, and ‘Loser Thinking’: Inside Proton’s AI Reckoning by Joseph Cox
I’ve seen attitudes like this first hand. These guys have no curiosity about the expertise below; staff are regarded as impediments rather than the sources of organisational success. It goes hand-in-hand with the lack of humility afforded by the meritocracy myth.
Looking forward
It doesn’t have to be bleak.
First, we need a government that isn’t all-in on empowering these delusions. The AI minister knows fuck all about tech. We need a minister that does and a government that could tolerate that voice.
China has outlawed companies from AI-based lay-offs. We could follow their lead, especially as the government isn’t interested in expanding the social safety net.
We also need an ambitious vision for how to handle a future where automation results in the unprecedented diminishment of jobs. Unprecedented solutions are required to match.