Earlier this month, it was reported that almost 80,000 workers were laid off in the first quarter of 2026, with companies pinning the blame on the rise of artificial intelligence.

Whether through improved task efficiency or cost savings through automation, deployment of AI within the workforce is supposed to be the economically smart decision — even if it didn't necessarily turn out to be true. But even that story may be hard to tell now, as Nvidia executive Bryan Catanzaro recently commented that, within his team, AI compute power is more expensive than actual workers.