Hoffman: AI is used as air cover for pandemic-era corporate layoffs
Liz Hoffman · OpenAI's TBPN Mistake, SpaceX’s $2 Trillion IPO?, Iran Disables Amazon Infrastructure · Apr 6, 2026 · at 25:59
Liz Hoffman analyzes recent corporate layoff announcements and reports of AI-driven job reductions with Alex Kantrowitz.
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“I, my theory on this is that AI is an excuse For companies to do layoffs, just like the tech isn't good enough. It isn't embedded enough workflows to like maybe outside of tech companies, you know, Mark Zuckerberg has talked a lot about kind of what a meta engineer is and isn't doing right now. And so maybe they're like, they will hire more slowly. I think it's air cover. These are companies that Massively overhired, you know, in the late 20 tens through the pandemic. Didn't want to fire people in the middle of a pandemic cause it makes you look bad. And then couldn't, then we're kind of frozen for a couple of years and couldn't quite figure out what to do. I think AI is just air cover.”
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