I don't think AI has much to do with it. The fear/expectation of AI, perhaps. But the rest is definitely Fed policy; they specifically said they wanted to cool

I don't think AI has much to do with it. The fear/expectation of AI, perhaps. But the rest is definitely Fed policy; they specifically said they wanted to cool wages, and I think maybe in cahoots with shareholders - remember that guy bleating about google employees earning $200k+, and that it 'should' be more like $100k if they're lucky and BTW, give the resulting increased profits to us shareholders.