Companies like Microsoft, Meta or Amazon, Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off in recent weeks, and the excuse is always the same: artificial intelligence. The same has happened in smaller companies. For Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, many of these layoffs have nothing to do with AI. He has even coined a term: «AI washing”.
Sam Altman creates that many CEOs use AI to fire employees, without the AI being to blame for anything. And he’s probably right: historically, companies have always taken advantage of any excuse to fire people. AI is a very useful excuse, because it can be used for everything, and it is something that cannot be verified.
In an interview in CNBCcollected by Fortunethe CEO of OpenAI says that: «I don’t know what the exact percentage is, but there is some AI washing, where people blame AI for layoffs that they would otherwise carry out themselves. And then there is actual displacement by AI of different types of jobs.»
Sam Altman y el AI washing
If a CEO can’t justify a direct replacement of the worker with AI, he can use abstract terms like “realignment of workforce to adjust to the challenge of AI,” and everything will be fixed.
The expression AI washing o AI laundering It derives from the term greenwashing, or ecological whitewashing, which many companies have used in recent years. They use lies such as “made with recyclable materials” or “ecological materials” to convey the idea that they respect the environment, and then they massively pollute in the manufacture or use of the product itself.
Sam Altman uses the term AI washing to convey the idea that AI is used as an excuse to fire peoplebut these layoffs have another intention, such as reducing expenses or adjusting budgets.
The CEO of OpenAI himself admits that he does not know what the percentage of IA washing in the layoffs that have been announced in the three years since the launch of ChatGPT. But he believes it is a significant number.
It also ensures that layoffs due to AI will be numerousbut “we will find new types of jobs, as happens with each technological revolution.” And he recognizes that “the real impact of AI on the labor market will begin to be palpable in the coming years.”
These forecasts are far from Dario’s Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, who has said that AI will end 50% of white collar jobs (office, in front of the computer), in 18 months. Microsoft’s head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman, has expressed himself in similar terms.
They are the opposite faces of AI: Dario, the most alarmist, and Sam, the most optimistic. Possibly the reality will be somewhere in the middle. But with AI, no forecast is of any use. The future is a blank slate that no one has the ability to predict, not even in the short term.