Every week there is a new round of layoffs in artificial intelligence. In May of this year, Microsoft laid off more than 6,000 employees as software engineers began to utilize AI for code generation and development. In the same month, IBM cut thousands of human resources positions. In February, Meta laid off 3,600 employees as the company reorganized around an "AI-first" strategy, with layoffs accounting for about 5% of its total workforce. These layoffs are not isolated events, but rather signs of significant changes in the global economy.

Last week, the number of unemployment benefit applications reached its highest level since last fall, with numerous companies from Procter & Gamble to Starbucks announcing plans for large-scale layoffs. To what extent this is due to Trump's trade war remains uncertain, but the rise of automation and AI-driven systems has made rote jobs much easier, which undoubtedly exacerbates the layoff dilemma.

Welcome to the immediate drawbacks of the age of artificial intelligence: economic substitution. If it seems bad right now, consider that we haven't reached what is known as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), the next big stage in the era of artificial intelligence. At that point, AI will be able to understand, learn, and apply knowledge in a variety of tasks just like humans. Artificial general intelligence will be able to reason, solve problems, and adapt to new situations in any field without reprogramming.

Although many experts believe that AGI will take decades to develop, an increasing number of experts suggest that it is likely to be achieved within the next five years.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei made headlines last week when he issued another warning that AGI-level systems could emerge in the next two to three years. Former research analyst Daniel Kokotajlo left due to OpenAI not placing enough emphasis on safety risks. A report stated that a paper published in May claims AGI is expected to be realized by the end of 2027.