A White House AI adviser is pushing back on one of the tech industry's most repeated explanations for job cuts: that artificial intelligence is doing the work people used to do.
According to Firstpost, the adviser questioned whether recent tech layoffs are genuinely AI-driven, arguing that "AI is an easy scapegoat." The remark, surfaced through Google News' AI feed, challenges a narrative that has become standard in corporate announcements and headlines alike — that automation, not business conditions or management decisions, is behind shrinking payrolls.
The skepticism is notable because of who is voicing it. Criticism of the AI-layoffs storyline usually comes from labor economists or worker advocates, not from an adviser inside an administration that has broadly championed American AI development.
The available reporting is limited to the adviser's framing; it does not detail which companies or job categories were discussed, or what evidence was offered. Readers should treat the comment as a challenge to a widely accepted assumption rather than a settled finding.
Why it matters: if AI is being used as cover for ordinary cost-cutting, then policymakers, investors, and workers may be misreading both the real pace of automation and the real reasons people are losing their jobs.