AI is not so much making companies more productive, rather it's costing money they could be paying as salaries.

A viral Reddit post challenges the narrative that AI will create new jobs, pointing to aggressive layoffs at major corporations like Amazon, Oracle, and Meta. The author argues that if AI truly boosted productivity, companies would simply move workers into new roles rather than cutting them. Instead, massive capital expenditures (CAPEX) on GPUs—which burn out or become obsolete in a few years—are consuming budgets that could otherwise fund salaries. Unlike the computer or internet booms, where hardware costs were manageable and led to job growth, AI investments are displacing workers without clear productivity returns.

This trend is particularly concerning because it suggests AI is replacing people, not just displacing them. The author notes that past technological shifts allowed companies to invest in new tools without mass layoffs—businesses didn't say 'to buy computers, I'll have to fire people.' Today, the high cost of AI hardware is forcing trade-offs that hurt employment. While AI may eventually yield gains, the current model prioritizes short-term cost cutting over long-term workforce development, raising questions about whether the technology is truly delivering value or just shifting costs.