Tech stocks go ever higher, but how much of that is due to real gains and how much is because of layoffs done in the foolish hope that generative

Is AI driving tech layoffs?

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2024-04-04 11:30:12

Tech stocks go ever higher, but how much of that is due to real gains and how much is because of layoffs done in the foolish hope that generative AI tools can replace workers?

I’d been writing about the tech industry for years before the dot-com crash of 2000. That bubble popped because of irrational exuberance about how the internet would change everything. Hundreds of thousands of tech jobs were lost.

Today, businesses are going crazy over genAI, which will change everything — and companies are already firing employees because they think bots can replace people. The “smart” money was right (and terribly wrong) both then and now.

In the 2000s, savvy tech business people were correct that the internet would change everything about the economy, but they were way too early. People quickly poured money into early e-commerce businesses such as Pets.com, Webvan, and eToys only to watch their investments vanish. So did everyone’s job who relied on these businesses to keep a roof over their heads.

For every Amazon that survived the crash and became a financial giant, a dozen other companies vanished from sight and memory.