Oracle has announced the layoff of up to 30,000 employees to redirect resources toward artificial intelligence and data centers. The measure, presented as a necessary restructuring, has sparked controversy when former employees revealed that they were the ones who trained the AI systems that now occupy their positions. The irony of the labor cycle in the technological era is laid bare.
The paradox of training your own replacement 🤖
Former Oracle employees claim that for months they labeled data, corrected errors, and validated responses from language models to improve their accuracy. Without knowing it, they were building the tools that would automate their own functions. The company justifies the move by pointing out that AI reduces operational costs and accelerates cloud product development, while the laid-off workers face a job market where they compete against machines they themselves fine-tuned.
AI thanks for the work, but doesn't give references 😅
Now former Oracle employees can boast of having had the most efficient job in the world: they worked to create their own replacement and didn't even get a headhunting commission. The company, for its part, saves on salaries and avoids paying for coffee. The only thing missing is for the AI to send them a thank-you email with a copy to Human Resources, although surely they drafted that too.