https://gizmodo.com/theres-a-new-term-for-workers-freaking-out-over-being-replaced-by-ai-2000723019
There isn't a ton of evidence to suggest that the introduction of AI has led to significant job losses, yet. But it has led to a significant amount of talk about job losses, and that appears to be taking a real toll on people. According to research published in the journal Cureus and spotted by Futurism, workers are increasingly suffering from distress caused by the constant fear of being replaced, and it's gotten so bad that it needs its own term.
The researchers propose calling this new, modern anxiety "AI replacement dysfunction" or AIRD. The authors define it as a "new, proposed clinical construct describing the psychological and existential distress that could be experienced by individuals facing the threat or reality of job displacement due to artificial intelligence (AI)." The condition carries with it several common symptoms including anxiety, insomnia, depression, and identity confusion "that may reflect deeper fears about relevance, purpose, and future employability." It can also lead to sufferers dealing with additional challenges like psychiatric disorders and substance abuse.
The anxiety over AI is definitely real. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 71% of respondents said they were concerned that AI will put "too many people out of work permanently." Pew Research found that more than half of Americans are worried about how AI in the workplace will impact their jobs, and most lower- and middle-class people believe AI will worsen their job prospects in the future. Another study found that people working in jobs particularly susceptible to automation are more likely to report feeling more stress and other negative emotions.
And while surprisingly few job cuts have actually been attributed to AI directly (despite the fact that many companies have used AI as cover for broader layoffs), there certainly does seem to be damage being done to the workforce, as it relates to entry-level roles, in particular. Early-career workers are definitely having a much harder time finding jobs, which can at least in part be attributed to companies being more willing to turn over that labor to AI. But the reality is that the economy sucks regardless of the introduction of technological innovation, and the companies responsible for building AI benefit from the narrative that their models are capable of doing human-level work. So hearing about AI taking over your job is basically unavoidable, whether the threat is real or not.
While AIRD isn't an accepted clinical diagnosis yet, the researchers have created a framework to help identify it, including a screening questionnaire designed to help clinicians spot potential symptoms. Treatments for the condition will be up to the clinician, but the researchers highlight Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and other cognitive restructuring techniques to "help patients build psychological resilience and restore a coherent sense of self."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21, @06:09PM (21 children)
Addicted for life, expensive.
Everything modern for-profit medicine could ask for.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21, @06:20PM (20 children)
Or you could go to a community college and learn a trade. There's a big shortage of machinists in USA at this time. With modern computer controlled machinery this is not the "dirty hands" job that it was traditionally. Many machine shops are running training programs--no college loans needed.
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Saturday February 21, @07:01PM (19 children)
No there is not. Check hiring sites. A shortage would result in pay higher than fast food.
5+ years of experience plus a degree and/or apprenticeship will get you $5/hr more than Panda Express.
If you don't have both, you'll get less than fast food wages.
Looking at like $20 to start and $30 with some experience.
There is not one general machinst job that pays more than $35/hr in my entire metro area on ziprecruiter.
There is one job paying "up to" $40/hr for extremely specialized experienced boring, reading between the lines they're reboring truck engine blocks.
Entry level operator jobs (not machinist, more like material handler) competing with illegals pays around $15. You can make a LOT more working fast food.
You can get $22/hr to mow the lawns at the city cemetery although most non-government landscaping jobs run about or just under $20.
The YMCA that I am a member of pays $19 for general site maintenance (non custodial) so if you can replace a light bulb or change the hvac air filter, working as a machinist will only get you $5 to $10 more per hour.
Wild to think that driving a lawnmower pays about the same as changing the oil on a lawnmower, but being able to make a lawnmower piston out of a block of steel is only worth maybe 25% more money than driving it.
You can make a lot more money fixing engines than you can making engine parts, which also seems weird.
The union electrician who wires power to a milling machine makes about twice per hour as the machinist operating the milling machine...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Saturday February 21, @07:18PM (3 children)
This also brings up a strange situation where replacing the YMCA maintenance guy with an AI LLM "so the lawnmower drivers can change their own oil with some help" would not save money, it would cost an extra $3/hr.
Its cheaper to have the maint guy do maint than have the kitchen workers and groundskeepers do maint with the help of a LLM. So I don't think AI will replace the maint guy at the YMCA LOL.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 22, @04:25AM (2 children)
Comparative advantage rears its ugly head once again! Of course, you would need some understanding of economics to figure that one out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Sunday February 22, @06:31PM (1 child)
Agreed. So I don't think the maint worker needs to worry about being fired and replaced by AI because having the other workers plus "free" AI would cost more than just having him do it. And the kitchen workers can't be fired because AI can't stir a spoon and they're already at the bottom of the wage scale.
The dire predictions of AI resulting in 95% firing rates seem to miss the point that a huge fraction of the population is already at the bottom so they can't be fired and replaced with AI + bottom skilled workers; they're already paid at the bottom or close enough not to matter. Or bachelors degree level skills only pays a couple bucks more than the bottom so the risk of firing them and replacing them with AI scarcely seems worth it.
I can see how the community college is having problems filling the schools if the degrees it grants pay so little.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 28, @02:15AM
>the kitchen workers can't be fired because AI can't stir a spoon
yet https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=825178839908248 [facebook.com]
>and they're already at the bottom of the wage scale.
So: last on the list during cost cutting discussions.
>The dire predictions of AI resulting in 95% firing rates
Are outrage inducing click bait / engagement drivers.
>paid at the bottom or close enough not to matter.
1995-ish, we had two "bottom of the scale" workers - had cancelled their medical insurance (used to be paid by the company) 2 years earlier (their insurance was costing 30% more than their paychecks.) So... we were essentially getting them for half what they used to cost us, but they were meatbags, meatbags that don't always show up to work, meatbags that need a parking space and a bathroom and air conditioning, meatbags that can trip and fall and sue (as one of them did on her last day after 12 years of no problems...) As cheap as they were (before the lawsuit), they were replaced by a PCB milling machine which was easier to make spec drawings for and produced a more reliable product than the wire-wrap and other prototypes they used to build for us. It was $25K, but their annual expense to the company was more than that. Getting rid of two meatbags like that saved us from having to lay off other (occasionally more valuable) meatbags the next time money got tight.
>bachelors degree level skills only pays a couple bucks more than the bottom so the risk of firing them and replacing them with AI scarcely seems worth it.
BS degree often just means: can communicate somewhat coherently, so might be valuable some day when we need that. Messenger, receptionist, warm body at the door... AI isn't a replacement for their smiling face, assuming they're not butt ugly with hygeine issues.
>I can see how the community college is having problems filling the schools if the degrees it grants pay so little.
I attended our community college a couple of summers to pick up cheap credits and open space in my Uni schedule for electives like SCUBA and sailing... ours was very much 13th grade. Compulsory attendance, well over half the students were there because their parents were going to make their lives more unpleasant if they didn't attend. Enthusiasm levels were shockingly low, worse than high school. About half the professors were fired up, excited to be teaching, but none of the students were - self included, I just wanted 3 credits per class I had to attend 9 times for 1/6th the $$$ cost per credit hour of my Uni IIRC.
Our Community College was literally in a row next to our trades school and my high school. In the trades (or whatever it was called) you could learn auto mechanics, plumbing, etc. There was at least a little enthusiasm there because the students knew this was their stepping stone to a real paycheck, better than "you want fries with that?" and the hands-on work was quite a bit more viscerally rewarding than Religions of the 15th century or whatever.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 21, @07:54PM (7 children)
>You can make a lot more money fixing engines than you can making engine parts, which also seems weird.
That's the disposable world of mass production. Why fix an old engine block when you can just replace it with a new one mass produced in China for less than the labor cost of machining it (and as you point out: the machinists aren't paid significantly more than kids at Burger King paid to ask: "ya want fries with that?")
I am constantly feeling disoriented while walking through a big box hardware store, seeing a not-so-great thin cotton shirt for $35 and a nice power drill for $50. A gallon of paint for $55, and a skil-saw for $60. $25 for 2lbs of screws and $30 for an angle grinder. Electric motors, windings, bearings, etc. are essentially free in today's economy, made to be disposable.
I'd rather pay twice the money for a tool that will stand up to 5x the abuse and/or last 10x as long, but while they will sell you "premium" options, there's no real way to tell if the durability comes along with the price.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21, @07:59PM (1 child)
"I'd rather pay twice the money for a tool that will stand up to 5x the abuse and/or last 10x as long"
and that is why decades old used tools that appear to have been lightly used have been going up in price.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 21, @08:21PM
I have a 1970s Craftsman power drill, and that thing just won't die, but: as compared with modern throw away drills: the chuck is a fiddly weak joke and the motor is anemic. But, because I've wired the chuck key onto the power cord and not lost it, it keeps going and going and going.
I have a similar old Skil-saw - my newer Milwaukee was actually a good buy in the 1990s, it's quite the trooper, but the older Craftsman saw won't die, even though I've had it on metal cutting abrasive wheel duty for 25 years.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 22, @07:39AM (1 child)
Here in Oz, I've slowly accumulated Aldi's range of Xfinity cordless tools, and a bunch of batteries. They all have the same connector and all batteries are "20" volts so all batteries fit all tools, even though they come in 2, 4 and 8 Ah. Some of the bigger tools take two batteries, and you probably don't want to run them on the 2Ah batteries due to current draw.
I used to work at Aldi and have a little knowledge of the back end of procurement. The tools come with a 1, 3, or 5 year guarantee. Aldi is rather famous here for standing behind its money-back guarantees, no questions asked, so you can be pretty sure its going to last at least as long as the guarantee.
The interesting and relevant part to your comment is that tools with a one year guarantee are sourced from medium quality Chinese factories, three year guarantee are from a high end Chinese factory, and the ones with a five year guarantee are mostly made in Germany.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday February 22, @04:15PM
> Aldi is rather famous here for standing behind its money-back guarantees, no questions asked, so you can be pretty sure its going to last at least as long as the guarantee.
I see Oz is still 20 years behind the U.S. We used to have the Sears Craftsman line of tools that were like that. Starting 20-ish years ago they started watering down the guarantee and not really standing behind it. Starting 15-ish years ago their stores were becoming a ghost of their former presence in the market. By about 10 years ago they were closing stores faster than bell-bottom jeans went out of style in the 80s. I think they were all completely shut before COVID hit.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 22, @11:47AM (1 child)
About the engines...
Some of us have old purely mechanical Diesel engines, made before the age of enshittification.
But there were only so many blocks cast, and a cracked one seems impractical to fix, but one only worn can be rebored and resleeved. Another issue on these 30 year old engines is cavitation/ corrosion issues, which can be mitigated in the machine shop.
Camshafts and injection pumps can be reworked. Not cheap, but from what I hear, do-able.
Some of us have put a lot of money into these things. Not so much for performance, but for reliability.
The propulsion is EMP proof, while many of us like the idea these old engines can run on cooking oil, waste motor oil, heating oil, kerosene, ATF, well whatever we can find, but not recommended for non-emergency use, as dirty fuel is prone to gum things up and release toxic exhaust.
We would rather keep what we have rather than accept the newer technology with all its dependencies on proprietary things that will doom our machines should that part be denied. A lot of these are in rural areas where we can do custom rebuilds.
So, yes, there are lots of us to keep machinists and fabricators busy.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 22, @12:34PM
> We would rather keep what we have rather than accept the newer technology
This sounds vaguely Amish -- they also draw the line on newer technology, but using a different definition of "newer". The Amish have been at this for quite some time and appear to be more organized, for example, living in clusters means that older/slower means of transport are sufficient.
Moving to a somewhat more recent definition of "new" are various Mennonite groups. A friend of mine was restoring a 1903 car, which is effectively a horse-less version of a wooden carriage/buggy. He found a Mennonite carriage building/repairing shop that did beautiful and functional wood and leather work for him. He also became friends with the family and bartered with them. One of the interesting barters was taking some family members for longer trips in his minivan, since their only vehicles were horse drawn.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 22, @04:29PM
I find it somewhat scammy that sneakers can cost more than Continental/Michelin car tyres that last many years long and more than 50x times the distance, under harsher conditions.
Also too many chairs are crap despite chairs being around for thousands of years.
In contrast it's amazing that many relatively cheap HDDs can spin at 7200 RPM for years or even more than a decade and still work fine.
I agree too much stuff nowadays is made not to last. I have a sweater from the 1990s that's still fine despite regular use and washes. But lots of more recently made clothes can't even last a few years. Many complain about microplastics from clothes going to the oceans. But if clothes were made to last much longer there would be far fewer microplastics shed per wash and use. Make them last longer and have the factories prewash them to collect the likely higher initial shedding of microplastics left over from manufacturing processes etc.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 21, @08:14PM (6 children)
Another thought about machinists: machining is fun. I mean, look at the BS that goes around machine shops: no A/C in Florida, NOISE, heavy lifting, sharp stuff everywhere, other hazardous conditions... but it's just a really cool feeling to have these tools that cut METAL! and do it so precisely and make such cool stuff - I mean, this isn't the kind of stuff most people can afford for their home workshop. Waterjet cutters? Coolest of the cool toys in 2001. So: oversupply of workers, limited demand (see above about competition with robotic mass production) D D = low pay.
Garbage collection workers? Notoriously high pay. Deep sea saturation diver welders? Also fun, for a certain set of mental illnesses, but S D so pay is high.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 21, @08:17PM
One more: smoke jumpers S >> D = volunteers.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21, @08:49PM
"look at the BS that goes around machine shops"
Having your colon ruptured by a cow-orker with an air gun (it's happened)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 22, @12:52AM (1 child)
Checked a local aerospace supplier, Great Lakes region. They have several entry machinist jobs posted and as VLM noted they are $23 - $25/hr starting pay. However, there is a future here if you put in your time and keep learning. Same company is looking for Senior machinist coordinator (or some such title) and the requirements start with a GED and 10 years machinist experience (or high school/college with less years experience).
So there is the difference between machinist and fast food. The machinist job has a path to the future--that Senior machinist position started at $100K/year and went up with more experience.
I don't see any great advancement path in the fast food business, it's the rare manager in an expensive area that can get to $100K/year...unless you inherit enough that you can afford to buy the restaurant?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday February 22, @06:37PM
I wonder how pointy the pyramid is. Surely 99% of the folks at the bottom will never be the $100K senior machinist OR the $100K fast food manager.
However, there's a lot more fast food restaurants than machine shops, so I would bet on fast food for a career. The pyramid is pointy so the odds of making it to the top are extremely low regardless, but there are more employers in fast food.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday February 22, @06:42PM (1 child)
Might be surprised at the HVAC. As a kid I did some grunt IT work, and from what I saw, most precision shops had AC at least as good as an office.
I bet the job I referenced boring engine blocks has good HVAC. Expansion coeff of steel and cast iron and measurement tools and cutting tools its easier to just lock the shop to 70F than to try and compensate. Rust is expensive too.
I've seen some rough production shops and warehouses, though. Any place that welds or paints needs "good ventilation" by which they usually seem to mean "no HVAC".
There's worse jobs, outdoor construction or farming...
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday February 22, @08:29PM
Yeah, the shop I spent the most time in was welding a bed-sized aluminum frame for us, so: high ceiling metal building with "lots of ventilation."
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 21, @06:33PM (1 child)
> and it's gotten so bad that it needs its own term.
All of the mental conditions of the past 29 years have been borne on the backs of creating terms for them. Give people a succinct couple words ("Anxiety!") and they'll latch on to it. Not only that, you start listing off _additional_ symptoms, and people start going, "Oh, that's what's included? Yeah.. yeah, I _do_ feel that way!"
Now "butterflies in the stomach" which you just push through and get over because nerves are a thing, and 'You've got this!' is a debilitating mental illness "anxiety" that of course explains why you've got nothing and can't do anything. Oh, it also requires medical treatment, 'cause it's not "butterflies in your stomach," it's "anxiety".
Yay. Now we have a new term! I'm sure this will explain everyone perfectly.
> There isn't a ton of evidence to suggest that the introduction of AI has led to significant job losses,
For bonus points, the whole scenario is fictitious. But don't let that stop the mental diseases! "No, it's not 'all in your head'. Here, take this pill, and come back next week for another session."
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Sunday February 22, @11:16PM
I agree with you on this.
When Soviets were trying to tame Chernobyl, they had a problem - high radiation environment. So the egg-heads had a great idea. They will rotate the army through the area, making sure that no one had any significant exposure. They will then give all these people medals for their "heroism and contribution to mother russia". They even game them special pension in recognition of the "sacrifice". They were called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators [wikipedia.org]
Now, I'm not talking about the initial response group and people that died from acute expose. I'm talking about the cleanup crews deployed weeks onward after the disaster was more or less contained. That's the majority of the people involved. In that group, and in the group of people that were evacuated, many viewed themselves as victims. As being destined to die of some terrible radiation disease. 100s of times of people drunk themselves to death than the number of initial responders that died from radiation expose.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260602878_Alcohol_dependence_syndrome_in_Chernobyl_NPP_accident_clean-up_workers [researchgate.net]
There's nothing more paralyzing to a man than being labelled a victim. Same here. If you start to despair that "AI will take my job and my life is pointless", then you are on the long downward spiral. While the AI is useful is some situations, it's not $500B chatbot worth. Don't freak out of being replaced - it's not worth it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by srobert on Saturday February 21, @07:43PM (8 children)
It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you. At the end of the day the purpose of the AI is to get work done without workers. So if anything, I would think that being apathetic about it is more symptomatic of a mental dysfunction than anxiety is. I'd be more anxious about it myself if I were not so close to retirement.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 21, @08:05PM (2 children)
My experience has been: layoffs come when the source of the paychecks is in economic distress.
Now: with all the foolishness around investment in AI, that is going to create a lot of economic distress in the employers and the biggest expense they can control: headcount.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 22, @04:38PM (1 child)
Google and Microsoft had huge profits AND still laid off workers: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-lays-off-thousands-more-210822278.html [yahoo.com]
https://www.geekwire.com/2025/in-new-memo-microsoft-ceo-addresses-enigma-of-layoffs-amid-record-profits-and-ai-investments/ [geekwire.com]
Having AI write 20-30% of the code ( https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/29/satya-nadella-says-as-much-as-30percent-of-microsoft-code-is-written-by-ai.html [cnbc.com] ) doesn't seem to be making the Windows Updates better, seems worse actually: https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/windows-11s-2026-goes-from-bad-to-worse-as-two-new-bugs-cause-havoc-crashing-apps-but-there-are-possible-fixes [techradar.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 28, @01:59AM
>Google and Microsoft had huge profits
Declared huge profits, on paper. What's the inside story? How long has it been since they pulled a rank & yank?
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by bloodnok on Sunday February 22, @12:12AM (3 children)
Yep.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to imagine where the oligarchs think they are taking us. If they replace workers with AI, then no-one besides other oligarchs will be able to buy their shit.
Are they really dumb enough to think that creating a massive unemployed and impoverished underclass is going to somehow improve their own well-being? Is Henry Ford's pretty basic understanding of economics beyond them?
__
The major
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Sunday February 22, @02:43AM (2 children)
They don't need to make money if they own everything already. They have billions saved up, and if they end up owning and controlling most things on this planet, well, that's what they used their money for, isn't it? They don't need more. They will own everything, and they won't care about what happens to the rest of us. Expect rights to be stripped from you, mass homelessness, increased anti-homeless architecture plus more criminalization of vagrancy and police brutality, and the AI surveillance panoptycon will stop any type of credible movement to threaten their power before it even gets off the ground. They'll arrest you if their surveillance AIs even *think* you could be a problem down the line. UBI is a pipe dream and will never happen. Not because it can't, because they won't let it.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gnuman on Sunday February 22, @10:55PM (1 child)
I've heard that Cesar owned Egypt as private estate and the Roman Empire was under his control. But that didn't save him from a few knives in the back, did it?
As Elon Musk said, money is just an entry in the database. That I agree with him on. The oligarchs own it as long as the majority of the rest of us agree with that world view. If we do not, then they do not own anything anymore. As simple as that.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Subsentient on Monday February 23, @01:22AM
That's precisely what the AI powered surveillance state is here to stop. If the AI system crushes any and all dissent, including proactively, and preemptively (because you said something controversial around your smartphone) you can't reach them with the knives or guillotine, because you're in prison, dead, or disappeared.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Sunday February 22, @12:49PM
At the end of the day, AI is a tool which creates work as well as replaces it. If the natural order of automation was to replace labor, then you would need to have lived centuries ago in order to have a job. The same economic obstacles [soylentnews.org] appear over and over again.
My view is that this bout of hysteria is fueled not by AI capabilities and legitimate concerns, but ridiculous levels of hype. The present mental illness will go away once the bubble pops.