More from the article ...

... "AI is the most consequential technology of our lifetimes," Zuckerberg said in a memo that he sent to employees, informing them of the cuts. "The companies that lead the way will define the next generation," he added.

The company has not revealed too much detail of the changes in the workforce, but it's clear that jobs focused on AI infrastructure will be protected.

Meta is not alone in announcing cuts. In a blog this month, Cisco said it was cutting 4,000 jobs and Microsoft is looking at inciting employees to take voluntary retirement for the first time.

The Meta reorganization is following the trend that businesses that don't adapt to AI usage will struggle. Earlier this year, PwC US CEO Paul Griggs caused consternation when he suggested that executives who failed to get to grips with AI had a limited future in the company.

While workforces are increasingly dependent on AI as a path to progress, IT departments are not necessarily on top of the game. A Dataiku survey earlier this year revealed that 74% of CIOs were fearful that their career paths were dependent on AI outcomes. ...

@#2

I do not disagree.

But another aspect of AI that needs to be discussed, imo ...

Prior ~innovations~ in the workforce have mostly been targeting blue-collar labor. That is, eliminating blue-collar jobs.

But AI is looking different.

AI, as it is being moved into the workforce seems to be targeting white-collar labor. That is, eliminating white-collar jobs.

Perhaps that may be a reason why there seems to be such a resistance to AI moving into the workforce?

From the cited motherjones.com sub-summary link ...

... The tech giant made thousands of engineers train their AI replacements"then fired them. ...

This week, Meta laid off 8,000 employees"10 percent of the company's staff"and reassigned another 7,000 to train AI models. Fear of the layoffs had been building around the company for weeks, compounded by the way that Meta has taken a sharp turn from a company built by coders to a company that has staked its future on AI. So when a Meta software engineer named David Frenk posted a farewell parody video to the tune of "American Pie" in an internal message board, staff thought it perfectly captured how the culture of the company has fundamentally shifted. They begged him to post it to YouTube, making their plight inside the company public.

"There's a bit of a disconnect," one former employee who asked not to be identified told Mother Jones, "This is a company of really smart people who work really hard"coders, engineers, designers"people whose creativity and intellect is a part of their job. And you are being told that this AI agent can do it better than you, and you are being asked to train it." ...