Will AI take your job: Here is what big AI companies from Google, Microsoft to Anthropic are saying

India Today

a day ago

The lure of AI like the lure of the sirens at sea in Greek mythology, knows no bounds. From afar, it is all fun and games – it almost feels magical – before someone gets hurt. That got dark FAST, didn't it? But there is good reason – and ample evidence that is piling up – why you must worry, if not downright fear, about the rise and rise of artificial intelligence around you. Not unless you lead a very carefree life where your needs are met without having to go through all the callous grind the corporate world throws at you to survive – and thrive – each day, every day, you are – and let me put this as delicately as possible – for all intents and purposes, screwed.advertisementIt wasn't always this bad. Remember the days when AI meant editing a photo or, at the very max, taking notes and having AI automatically summarise it for you in quick bullet points? It doesn't feel like yesterday because this was all literally, just yesterday. Today, AI is making cool videos and writing code, so on and so forth.The problem is not so much about what it is doing – some might say, they want it to do even more, which is okay – but, at what cost? There is, of course, the environment angle as these things are a major resource hog [already, people are starting to look for ways to unload some of this AI waste into space] but an equally important question is – if AI will do everything, what will we do?advertisement
People and companies doing AI on a large scale who are after making AGI (short for artificial general intelligence) and world models for some godforsaken reason, say in the same breath – all modestly be damned – that the same AI is (probably) coming after your jobs. Watch out and buckle up meaning that those in the line of fire have two options – get better than AI or look elsewhere.Microsoft recently laid off 6,000 employees, that is about 3 percent of its global headcount. When probed, it was found that a significant portion (over 40 per cent) of some 2,000 employees who were given the dreaded pink slip at its own HQ in Washington, were software engineers. It would have gone unnoticed if CEO Satya Nadella hadn't gone on record to boast how Microsoft was internally using AI to write up to 30 percent of the company's code just days before the mass layoffs were reported. Microsoft co-founder, the illustrious Bill Gates has, time and time again, urged students to learn to code regardless of their area of study.As is often the case, social media is full of former Microsoft employees narrating their story of many usual and some unusual firings. In one of the cases, Microsoft allegedly let AI pick and fire a 25-year-old veteran, without any rhyme or reason. In yet another incident, a team of 400 engineers was asked to use AI to generate 50 percent of the code by their manager (one upping Nadella's claim), only to be fired weeks later.advertisementAt least one high-profile Microsoft executive thinks that coding is not dead despite all the outward appearances. Aparna Chennapragada, the company's chief product officer of experience and devices, said in fact, it was the opposite of dead, that learning to code was now more valuable than ever. 'A lot of folks think about, 'Oh, don't bother studying computer science or coding is dead,' and I just fundamentally disagree,' she reiterated. Though, she did acknowledge that soon, we might see a fundamental shift in how we code. 'There'll be an order of magnitude more software operators [and presumably fewer software engineers in the conventional sense],' she predicted, adding, 'but that doesn't mean you don't understand computer science. It's a way of thinking, and it's a mental model. So, I strongly disagree with the whole, 'Coding is dead.'' In other words, if you're a software engineer today or aspiring to be one tomorrow, you must brace yourself – and prepare to – become smarter than AI. Anything less and you might struggle to make ends meet.advertisementSoftware engineering is widely considered as one of the most lucrative professions. For many in India, it is a ticket for the outside world, especially the Silicon Valley in the US, which is home to Google and some of the other companies, collectively known as the 'Big Tech.'At Google, the situation is no different. CEO Sundar Pichai has said that AI is now writing over 25 percent of the company's code, while its chief economist Fabien Curto Millet openly said that AI was boosting productivity. Google and Co. have been choosing their words carefully on the matter, always putting in disclaimers aimed at pacifying people that while AI will bring some job cuts, it will also create many new ones. So far, layoffs at Google have mostly had to do with streamlining and improving efficiency to make way for bigger investments in AI and data centres. Around 200 employees in the global business unit were recently laid off, while in April, Google let go hundreds from its platforms and device division.advertisementSome might say the final salvo was delivered at I/O 2025, where it laid out both its vision and a bevy of commercial products to make AI more accessible. Chief amongst them was Veo 3, the next generation version of its AI video generator, capable enough to confuse the smartest person in the room into believing its videos were not made by humans. In the middle of all this, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis came out and dropped the bomb, saying AI will disrupt [most] jobs in five years, urging teenagers to start preparing not just academically – which will still be crucial – but from the point of view of sharpening meta-skills like creativity, adaptability, and resilience, those that set humans apart from machines.'Over the next 5 to 10 years, I think we're going to find what normally happens with big new technology shifts, which is that some jobs get disrupted. But new, more valuable, usually more interesting jobs get created,' Hassabis said, adding that 'developing the mindset to navigate constant change,' was equally important.That change will become a necessity when AI becomes human-like, which is what everybody seems to be working towards. There might be different versions of it depending on who gets their first, but it is safe to assume that there will be multiple versions of 'personalities', because if the goal is to make it as human as possible, isn't it plausible for it to have different tastes and opinions? The cynic in me says, 'Let's hope it never comes to that,' while a part of me that still gets a rush out of crazy, over-the-top sci-fi movies, goes like, 'Terminator! Let's do this.'advertisementPioneers in the field believe we are not quite there yet. According to Meta AI chief scientist Yann LeCun, one of the three 'godfathers of AI', 'Understanding the physical world, having persistent memory, being able to reason, and being able to plan, and planning complex actions, particularly planning hierarchically,' are the four key human traits that AI models, especially large language models (LLMs), don't have yet. Scientists have been trying to put these traits in them to achieve what is called general-purpose AI, but apparently, there is no shortcut to human and animal intelligence. But they are working with LeCun himself, advocating the idea of world-based models that could give AI the hierarchical understanding it needs to make sense of the physical world someday.In the meantime, AI will continue to disrupt through new-found capabilities like helping a single person to set up a billion-dollar company from scratch or wiping out up to 50 percent of entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years, potentially causing unemployment to spike to 10-20 percent, according to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. You can expect cuts across technology, finance, law, and consulting – at the very least.Tune In