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Ask HN: Have you been fired because of AI?

11 points - yesterday at 6:14 AM


Wanted to gather some stories about people who were fired because of AI. Not a generic "reorg", what they say in the press release, but honestly, because of AI. Proves?

  • codingdave

    yesterday at 11:42 AM

    Yes, but not the way you are thinking.

    My prior job was for a group within a large company who were early into going "All in" on AI. They insisted that we move our products towards AI, that everyone use AI for all the things, etc. It did not go well. At all. All the management above us got fired. I've never before seen an entire executive team all fired at the same time. Then they fired us, too. The handful people who were left went back to their pre-AI product strategies, recovered, and are running just fine now.

      • austin-cheney

        yesterday at 8:21 PM

        What were the primary factors? Costs, personnel tracking, hallucinations, speed of delivery, or other?

        • s-stude

          yesterday at 12:49 PM

          Do you think they will be implementing AI again anytime soon? haha.

      • shinryuu

        yesterday at 6:59 AM

        There are some stories here https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/s/ai-killed-my-job

        • anabes

          yesterday at 8:37 AM

          In my friendโ€™s company they stopped all hiring. And ask everybody to use AI as much as possible. Maybe this is not โ€œfiringโ€ but definitely no hiring.

          • oyeg

            yesterday at 9:49 AM

            Yes, i was fired from my role last week. We were buliding B2B SaaS in analytics space. Though not by AI, it was due to the market conditions created by AI. Customers are not willing to spend money on tools without proper AI story.

              • s-stude

                yesterday at 12:45 PM

                Was there any chance for your company to implement AI and to make more sales/ keep your job?

            • mmarian

              yesterday at 9:14 AM

              See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46527950

                • s-stude

                  yesterday at 9:20 AM

                  Yes, I've heard about that. Any personal stories are very much appreciated.

              • gitbit-org

                yesterday at 11:58 AM

                Love this because I call BS on most "We've let go 1,000 employees due to AI".

                For example, I just saw Pinterest say they let go of a large part of their workforce because of AI, but in reality, their new CEO has BUTCHERED the app. It's practically unusable.

                More and more companies seem to be screwing up, and instead of saying "we screwed up," it's a lot better to say "we've replaced these people with AI!"

                  • s-stude

                    yesterday at 12:51 PM

                    You can create Pinterest-like images on the fly now with AI. IMO, the end is inevitable for similar companies.

                • joefarish

                  yesterday at 8:57 AM

                  Do you mean fired or let go / made redundant?

                    • s-stude

                      yesterday at 9:21 AM

                      Fired or let go. I understand that many positions have duplicate people in backup roles, so some will be redundant.

                  • fogzen

                    yesterday at 4:15 PM

                    No, but every day I have to listen to my insufferable manager tell us we have to use whatever AI tool is trending on X.

                    If I could quote this stupid industry I would.