The author's framing is too generous to management. This isn't about AI at all. Amazon lost money in 2022, started cutting, then posted $30B, then $59B in pro

The author's framing is too generous to management. This isn't about AI at all. Amazon lost money in 2022, started cutting, then posted $30B, then $59B in profit while continuing to cut. Pinterest had one mildly bad year, then a record year, then announced layoffs yesterday. The pattern: once a company discovers it can reduce headcount without hurting revenue, it never stops. AI is just the current justification. Before that it was "synergies" and "restructuring." The story changes; the outcome doesn't. Jassy admitted as much on the Q3 earnings call: the cuts are "not really financially driven and it's not even really AI-driven." He's telling you the truth. They cut because they can, and Wall Street rewards it. The real anti-labor mechanism isn't AI. It's the discovery that headcount is decoupled from output.