When efficiency starts removing the worker
The first day at work often stays with us: a first wage, an experienced colleague explaining a task, the discovery that others need what we can contribute. Such beginnings are part of how people learn a profession and find a place in society.
AI can reduce danger and drudgery. Its development is also increasingly organized around automating professional work. In February, Block announced a reduction from more than 10,000 employees to fewer than 6,000 while reporting improving finances and describing an AI-driven restructuring.1
Mustafa Suleyman forecast automation of many computer-based professional tasks within 12–18 months. Dario Amodei warned that half of entry-level white-collar jobs could disappear within one to five years. These are executives’ forecasts. Salesforce’s marketing of agents as digital labour shows how replacement is becoming a product objective.234
Opportunities that quietly disappear
September Stanford/ADP findings recorded a 4.4% year-on-year employment decline among 22–25-year-olds in highly AI-exposed U.S. occupations, compared with 2.0% in less-exposed occupations. Danish research found 11% slower employment growth among adopting firms relative to non-adopters, mainly through reduced hiring. A working paper covering 41 countries found a smaller junior share in adopting firms, largely through increased senior hiring. These studies examine different populations and outcomes and direct attention toward entry routes.567
Junior tasks are often where experience begins: a first draft, basic research, debugging, or a decision checked by a colleague. Removing those tasks can break the path through which a profession develops judgment and passes on knowledge.
The knowledge workers bring
Reuters reported Meta’s collection of employee mouse movements and keystrokes for AI training, including the company’s account of safeguards. A Guardian investigation described garment workers in India recording their movements to train robots. Factory managers sometimes consented; workers reported having little say and receiving no direct additional payment.89
People’s practical knowledge carries years of labour and experience. Its extraction to make them dispensable raises questions of consent, compensation, and participation. Workers and their families deserve a voice before their contribution is turned into a reason to remove their livelihood.