No companies in New York State have admitted to replacing workers with AI, despite over 160 businesses filing notices of mass layoffs since last March, according to a report by Wired. This comes as the technology continues to evolve and its impact on the workforce remains a topic of discussion.
The New York Department of Labor confirmed to Wired that no employer had cited technological innovation or automation as the reason for workforce reductions in filings made through the end of January. This option was added 11 months prior to a required question on paperwork that businesses with 50 or more employees must file to notify the state of significant job losses. Companies like Amazon and Goldman Sachs, which are known to be adopting AI tools, were among those filing notices.
While companies are not explicitly stating AI as a cause for layoffs, the technology continues to advance. "Agents today can connect together, but they can't really think together," said Vijoy Pandey, SVP and GM of Outshift by Cisco, during a VentureBeat AI Impact Series event. He added that the core challenge is enabling agents to be "steeped in collective intelligence."
The focus on AI is also driving significant investment in infrastructure. However, according to VentureBeat, the bottleneck may not be the hardware itself. "While people are focusing their attention, justifiably so, on GPUs, because they're very significant investments, those are rarely the limiting factor," said Mark Menger, solutions architect at F5. "They're capable of more work. They're waiting on data."
The rapid development of AI has also led to new applications and experiments. A Reddit clone called Moltbook, designed as a social network for bots, went viral in a matter of hours, according to MIT Technology Review. The site allowed instances of an open-source LLM-powered agent to interact.
MIT Technology Review has also launched a new AI newsletter, "Making AI Work," which will explore how AI is being used across various sectors. The newsletter will provide weekly case studies and guidance on AI implementation, according to the publication.
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