{"id":780759,"date":"2026-07-23T23:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/780759\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:30:17","slug":"the-ai-layoff-trap-by-jonathan-v-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/780759\/","title":{"rendered":"The AI Layoff Trap – by Jonathan V. Last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to have a fairly technical discussion about economics and AI in a minute, but first I want to give you some candy.<\/p>\n

As part of the America 250 BS, the Trump administration held a quiz bowl\u2013style competition for high school kids about \u201ccivics.\u201d <\/p>\n

And they rigged the game.<\/p>\n

One of the semifinalists was a Sikh kid from Connecticut with immigrant parents. The judges made clear-cut \u201cmistakes\u201d in grading his answers so that three white kids\u2014one homeschooled, one from a private Catholic school, and one whose dream is to go to Hillsdale\u2014made the finals.<\/p>\n

I know this sounds like crazy talk. It\u2019s not. NOTUS has the entire story.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is America now. Heritage Americans and MAGA fans first. <\/p>\n

No deviationism will be permitted.<\/p>\n

On the one hand: This is not a big deal. Anyone who has ever watched a $100 Rotary scholarship go to the son of the guy who runs the local chamber of commerce knows this is how things work sometimes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

On the other hand: The rest of us don\u2019t have to play along and pretend not to see what\u2019s happening. Oh, and one last thing in the footnotes.<\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a new academic paper making the rounds from a couple of researchers at Wharton. It is . . . alarming. They try to anticipate effects from the AI disruption and their thesis goes something like this:<\/p>\n

AI will rapidly replace many workers.<\/p>\n

The surge in unemployment will crush overall demand for products and services.<\/p>\n

At which point the companies that replaced workers with AI will suffer.<\/p>\n

This trap is akin to the Prisoner\u2019s Dilemma. Overall, businesses would be better off if they cooperated and slowed their adoption of AI. But individually, businesses will be harmed if they don\u2019t replace workers as fast as possible. <\/p>\n

Not gonna lie: It\u2019s a pretty grim assessment. So let\u2019s look closer.<\/p>\n

Get a 14-day FREE Bulwark+ trial<\/a><\/p>\n

I know these paywalls can be annoying but they make it possible for us to do what we do here every day\u2014helping you see around corners. I hope you\u2019ll consider giving Bulwark+ a try, FREE for the next two weeks.
A membership helps keep our work sustainable and includes the best community on the internet. We keep each other sane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo illustration by Sarah Rogers\/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock) We\u2019re going to have a fairly technical discussion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-780759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}