Every major tech layoff in 2026 that has name-checked AI | TechCrunch

[rcjordan]

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/06/the-running-list-major-tech-layoffs-in-2026-where-employers-cited-ai/

[ergophobe]

> to fund AI infrastructure investment
> 35% fewer managers
> vast majority of those we laid off last week were measurers

This is very different than, "now a bot can do their job."

> cut of about 4,000 customer-support roles

That, on the other hand, is probably AI replacing employees. The question is whether that replacement meets customer needs or just frustrates them because it sucks. Cory Doctorow is always saying that AI doesn't need to be good enough to replace you, it needs to be good enough that management thinks it can replace you, even if it does a horrible job at what used to be your job.

[rcjordan]

> just frustrates them because it sucks

That's what is in my feeds BUT the intensity/quantity of it needs to be discounted because the media, bloggers, etc are playing to the growing anti-ai movement.

[ergophobe]

> discounted

Indeed. So many people say they hate AI writing and such, but when blind tested, we often *prefer* AI writing now.

And it makes sense that we would. AI writing is aimed at replicating the dominant practice. So it tends to have fewer new ideas, but we tend to like it better.

The people who say they hate AI writing are probably not detecting 80% of the AI writing they encounter and just keying in on the 20% that is obviously awful (though there's less and less of that).

Saying that I hate THAT AI is writing is, I think, a perfectly valid and coherent position. Saying that I hate AI writing is mostly BS because I mostly lack the tools to detect it.

Charles C Mann, one of my favorite non-fiction writers, recently posted that for kicks he took a text of his and put it into an AI detector. It rated it 100% AI generated.

[rcjordan]

Bsky has a huge cohort of artists that create/sell works upon commissioning --lots of porn, games, sci-fi renderings in the $40-75 range. Like Hollywood, I think they do face an immediate and formidable competitor and aren't happy about it.

[rcjordan]

>So many people say they hate AI writing and such, but when blind tested, we often *prefer* AI writing now.

[Drastic]

So I found this band I really liked and was sharing it with a friend who is much more entrenched in music and right off he asked if the band were AI and I scoffed. He didn't recognize them was all. They were too guttural, and impassioned to be AI. So of course I looked them up later and yeah they are AI.

I think before long everything we see or hear online, or that isn't right in front of us, will be suspect. It's going to be too good to discern the difference, at least regularly. At some point, none of the talking heads will have to be real. The vast majority of us never see those people in person anyway.

Btw that band is Heavy Psychedelics if you want to check out what fooled me, on spotify.

[ergophobe]

> isn't right in front of us, will be suspect

Dan Evrett went on a mission to convert the Piraha people to Christianity in the 1970s. He also got a PhD in linguistics out of it (and the wrath of Chomsky when Evrett said Piraha lacked structures Chomsky said were universal)

Along the way he translated one of the Gospels and taught about Jesus. Eventually someone asked if Jesus was dark like them or light like Evrett.  He said he didn't know. The Piraha were shocked. Hadn't he met Jesus? No. Well then his father had? No. Did anyone you know meet Jesus? No. "Well then you are not allowed to tell us about Jesus anymore."

This event ultimately led to Evrett converting to atheism.

This was on the most recent episode of the BBC 's Lives Less Ordinary podcast.