Since the advent of ChatGPT, which brought AI to the forefront of technological developments, much has been written about the threat AI poses to workers. Goldman Sachs has estimated that 300 million jobs will be lost due to artificial intelligence.

And while most people think this is a far future development, evidence shows that people are already losing their jobs to AI.

According to Challenger, Gray, and Christmas’ monthly report on the US labor market, there were about 80,000 layoffs in the US in May, with 3,900 of them attributed to artificial intelligence.

The report shows that 417,500 jobs were lost in the U.S. from January to May, as this year’s first five months of the year were the worst since 2020, when the start of the pandemic caused more than 1.4 million layoffs (in the U.S. they did not apply broad measures to protect jobs, as was done in much of Europe).

The May report was the first to include artificial intelligence as a reason for layoffs, with related job cuts mostly in the technology sector.

Challenger believes the trend will continue, although companies may be hesitant to cite AI as a reason for layoffs. On the other hand, there are currently no figures that give an insight into the number of jobs that have been created due to this technology.

However, just last week, the largest eating disorder nonprofit, the National Eating Disorder Association, confirmed the replacement of six of its helpline employees with an artificial intelligence chatbot called Tessa. However, the agency was forced to temporarily shut down Tessa after it advised a user to weigh themselves once a week and count calories, behaviors that can worsen the disorder.

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