Over the last few months, a number of well-known companies have announced layoffs of tens of thousands of workers. UPS said it is getting rid of 48,000 employees. Amazon is shedding 30,000. Intel is firing 24,000. IBM, Target, Nestle, Accenture and Ford are terminating many thousands more. The list goes on.

And the culprit? According to many media reports, it's artificial intelligence.

The "AI Destruction of Millions of Jobs Begins," says Yahoo Finance. "Tens of Thousands of White-Collar Jobs Are Disappearing as AI Starts to Bite," reports The Wall Street Journal. “A.I. Might Take Your Job,” warns The New York Times. “The Nation’s Largest Employers Are Putting Their Workers On Notice,” says The Washington Post.

Automation will kill jobs! Robots are destroying the world! The end is nigh!

These stories get clicks. But the truth is, AI isn't the reason behind most of these job cutbacks. In fact, AI — at least so far — has not been working as well as hoped.

A recent survey published by KPMG of more than 48,000 business people around the world found that only 46 percent trusted their AI systems. A similar poll of developers — and these are the people who would know — revealed that only one-third trusted the output of their AI-driven development tools, a number that has been declining from the technology's earlier years. "Almost right" is a phrase often heard.

Many news outlets have recently reported on the "workslop" generated by AI chatbots.........

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