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"Not a single engineer has ever been laid off because of AI." are you insane??? big tech literally make one of the most biggest layoff for the past few months

aussieguy1234 11mo ago
That's because of overhiring and other non-ai related reasons (i.e. Higher interest rates means less VC funding available). In reality, getting AI to do actual human work, as of the moment, takes much more effort and cost than you get back in cost savings. These companies will claim they are using AI, even if its just a few engineers using Windsurf. The companies claim AI is the reason they laid off engineers to make it look like they're innovating, not downsizing, which makes them look better in the eyes of investors and shareholders.
- wiz21c 11mo ago
  in my own experience, using Claude gives me about 5-10% productivity increase because it's really good at writing boiler code or surgically modifying some code I didn't write.
slightwinder 11mo ago
But not because of AI, they only use that as pretext for normal layoffs. Sometimes they also use it to hire cheaper workers fresh from school or a cheaper country, so just replacing expensive seniors.
- falcor84 11mo ago
  From what I'm seeing, it's become more and more difficult for fresh grads to get hired over the last year. If anything, I see that the preference for experienced devs is now even stronger. If you have any evidence to the contrary, I'd appreciate it.
  - simonw 11mo ago
    The Shopify and Cloudflare intern thing is interesting: both companies have committed to hiring way more interns, on the basis that an intern armed with AI-assistance can get productive way faster (plus they are more likely to be "AI-native" than older engineers.) Shopify interns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3IILWQPRM&t=1970s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3IILWQPRM&t=1970s - talking about planning to hire 1,000 interns. Cloudflare: https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-1111-intern-program/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-1111-intern-program/ - announcing Cloudflare’s goal to hire 1,111 interns in 2026.

aussieguy1234 11mo ago

That's because of overhiring and other non-ai related reasons (i.e. Higher interest rates means less VC funding available). In reality, getting AI to do actual human work, as of the moment, takes much more effort and cost than you get back in cost savings. These companies will claim they are using AI, even if its just a few engineers using Windsurf. The companies claim AI is the reason they laid off engineers to make it look like they're innovating, not downsizing, which makes them look better in the eyes of investors and shareholders.

wiz21c 11mo ago
in my own experience, using Claude gives me about 5-10% productivity increase because it's really good at writing boiler code or surgically modifying some code I didn't write.

slightwinder 11mo ago

But not because of AI, they only use that as pretext for normal layoffs. Sometimes they also use it to hire cheaper workers fresh from school or a cheaper country, so just replacing expensive seniors.

falcor84 11mo ago
From what I'm seeing, it's become more and more difficult for fresh grads to get hired over the last year. If anything, I see that the preference for experienced devs is now even stronger. If you have any evidence to the contrary, I'd appreciate it.
- simonw 11mo ago
  The Shopify and Cloudflare intern thing is interesting: both companies have committed to hiring way more interns, on the basis that an intern armed with AI-assistance can get productive way faster (plus they are more likely to be "AI-native" than older engineers.) Shopify interns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3IILWQPRM&t=1970s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-3IILWQPRM&t=1970s - talking about planning to hire 1,000 interns. Cloudflare: https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-1111-intern-program/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-1111-intern-program/ - announcing Cloudflare’s goal to hire 1,111 interns in 2026.