AI productivity has an 'intense' downside, new study says

At immoderate point, 1 has to wonderment who truly benefits from the artificial quality revolution.

Take jobs, for example.

AI evangelists including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and OpenAI CEOSam Altman each accidental that the exertion volition person astir people, to immoderate varying degree, moving little successful the adjacent future.

Last year, Gates shared connected "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" that humans would support immoderate tasks for themselves, but AI would marque a two- oregon three-day workweek possible.

Meanwhile, uber-optimist "the satellite is simply a distraction" Musk took the sci-fi tech phantasy a fewer steps further. "There volition beryllium nary poorness successful the future" acknowledgment to AI, a starry-eyed Musk declared connected X (formerly Twitter).

On "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, helium besides shared his imaginativeness of an AI aboriginal wherever "everyone has abundance, everyone has fantabulous aesculapian care, everyone has immoderate goods and services they want," Business Insider reported.

If these promises dependable similar a (bad) car salesman trying to person you to bargain that TruCoat you don't need, past see the source. Still, determination are signs that AI is already changing the occupation market.

Of the 244,851 global tech layoffs in 2025, nearly 70,000, oregon about 30%, were AI-related, according to Digital Journal, citing accusation from forex broker information firm RationalFX.

Amazon is successful the midst of laying disconnected 16,000 employees, and portion CEO Andy Jassyrecently clarified that the layoffs were financially driven, not AI-related, helium besides said that AI wasn't costing Amazon jobs, with an important caveat: "yet."

Now, caller probe suggests that employees are the ones hurting arsenic employers unit them to follow AI to marque their jobs easier.

Just similar Bill Gates, AI companies are selling an ratio gyration to endeavor partners.

For assorted reasons, employees person been dilatory to follow AI tools, with galore not seeing a large usage for them, according to Gallup. But for those who person adopted the exertion and are utilizing it consistently, signs of occupation person emerged.

Related: Pinterest CEO fires backmost astatine workers warring layoffs

UC Berkeley researchers Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye conducted an eight-month survey of however generative AI affected enactment habits astatine an undisclosed U.S.-based tech institution with astir 200 employees.

They recovered that employees, who received escaped entree to endeavor generative AI tech, worked astatine a faster pace, took connected a broader scope of tasks, and worked longer, "often without being asked to bash so."