White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett on Monday shrugged off any negative impact of artificial intelligence on employment, saying the emergent technology isn’t costing anyone their jobs right now.
“There’s no sign in the data that AI is costing anybody their job right now, but we are studying the future of AI and what it means for the workforce, so we’ve got a big taskforce on that,” Hassett told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Hassett’s comments come amid a wave of tech layoffs, as companies like Amazon, Meta and Oracle have announced rounds of job cuts, with some emphasizing AI’s role in automating work and boosting productivity with lower headcounts.
Block announced that it would lay off nearly 4,000 employees in February, reducing the firm’s headcount by nearly half.
“We are choosing to shift how we operate at a time when our business is accelerating and we see an opportunity to move faster with smaller, highly talented teams using AI to automate more work,” wrote Block CFO Amrita Ahuja at the time of the announcement.
