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AI is starting to pick who gets laid off

As layoffs ravage the tech industry, algorithms once used to help hire could now be deciding who gets cut

By
February 20, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EST
Workers on a conveyor belt go through a robot sorting them.
As Silicon Valley’s fortunes turn, algorithms are helping decide who to let go, and who to keep. (Illustration by Elena Lacey/The Washington Post)
5 min

Days after mass layoffs trimmed 12,000 jobs at Google, hundreds of former employees flocked to an online chatroom to commiserate about the seemingly erratic way they had suddenly been made redundant.

They swapped theories on how management had decided who got cut. Could a “mindless algorithm carefully designed not to violate any laws” have chosen who got the ax, one person wondered in a Discord post The Washington Post could not independently verify.