CNBC's Steve Liesman joins 'Squawk on the Street' with details on what's behind recent corporate layoff announcements.

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The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

Recent layoffs at companies such as UPS, Amazon, and Target have raised concerns that artificial intelligence is causing widespread job losses. However, industry experts and company leaders indicate that many of these layoffs are due to business restructuring, economic shifts, or post-pandemic changes, rather than direct AI-driven automation.

While AI has affected some low-skilled and entry-level positions, there is little evidence that it is currently replacing workers at scale. Experts advise skepticism when companies attribute layoffs to AI, noting that the technology's impact on employment is still in its early stages and may be more significant in future hiring practices than in current job cuts.

Is AI behind recent job cuts? Here's what to know

Welcome back. Advances in artificial intelligence have certainly been blamed a bit for a host of corporate layoffs that we've seen recently. But are companies using the technology perhaps as an excuse that are covering up other weaknesses. Steve Gleasman has that story for us. Steve David you have 48000 layoffs at UPS 14000 at Amazon 1800 at Target. A slew of layoffs have raised fears that A.I. is already whacking corporate jobs but not so fast. In some cases companies could be involved in A.I. washing attributing job loss to A.I. when in fact it could be a downturn in the business or a simple restructuring. UPS saying in its earnings quote we launched our efficiency reimagined initiatives to undertake the end to end process redesign effort which will align our organizational processes to the network reconfiguration. Whatever that means. My colleague Frank Holland found there was some A.I. related job losses but 34000 were linked largely to closing buildings right sizing the staff levels particularly in the wake of the online shopping boom from the pandemic. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had to walk back the impression created by the media and the company itself that recently us were linked to A.I. The layoffs he said were quote not really financially driven and it's not really even A.I. driven. Not right now. It's culture. Peter Capelli a professor of management at the Wharton School says there's little evidence so far that companies are even able to replace workers now at scale. Using A.I. and introducing it to save jobs turns out to be an enormously complicated and time consuming exercise. I think there's still a perception that it's simple and easy and cheap to do and it's it's really not what we've seen so far. A.I. taking low skilled jobs entry level some communications jobs some white collar workers but not in large numbers. These are just early days for the new technology responsible for mass layoffs. It could be coming but investors should be wary of regular old job cuts wrapped in A.I. clothing guys. In other words it's an excuse. It may be. But I mean Steve you do have CEOs Doug McMillan for example at Walmart who's been talking about this a lot lately kind of indicating we're going to have to retrain for so many different jobs in terms of what they're going to be. We just don't know really is the answer. What's coming at this point. No. And it's not really to take away from the idea that it is coming. It's just that right now it seems they ever think about 14000 bespoke white collar jobs at a particular place. The thing about technology is it still has to be come out of a commodity that it's replacing. Right. So is the job that this person does over here and that person is A.I. ready to replace all that. And there's all that happened without anybody really knowing it. The point here is not that it's not coming but it's to be skeptical when companies say it's already here. The other argument I've heard the last couple of days Steve has been post covid hoarding right where you weren't sure how big your pool of candidate would be if you did not fill a position or if you let someone go. That's obviously changed. I also thought Cook's comments yesterday were interesting regarding the potential negative impact of a labor. I think that's certainly something that I know the Fed is talking about embracing for. But you know when a company like UPS says something like we've launched our efficiency reimagined initiatives to make the processes to the network reconfiguration. What does any of that stuff even mean. I mean that's just a special piece of the use of the English language right there. But but look here's the thing. It is definitely going to be some job losses. But even Goldman which did it did it take I'd say 4 percent this year maybe 11 percent over three years. There's also going to be jobs created. I'm not saying we shouldn't be afraid of it. I'm also saying it's not coming. It's just right now it looks like early days to be saying we let off 30000 people AI. Mike Garagetti was talking about this yesterday. He was saying it's less in the layoffs and more in the in the lack of new hiring. Right. We've been saying this a lot Steve that it's not necessarily AI related specifically in terms of these layoffs but much more of what Sarah just indicated in the conversations we've been having at the desk as well with certain of our guests. I think it's what's coming in terms of will it keep a lid on new hiring. By the way that press release you reference may well have been written by chat GPT. It sounds like it. I think Sarah's got it right. What I think people are doing is this cautious approach of we can't go in and replace those workers but let's not bring anybody else on before we can figure out how AI does it. The other thing is that let's not confuse automation with AI. We've been automating for I don't know thousands of years certainly more intense in the last 300 to come along and it automates that doesn't mean it's AI. One more thing I think is out there which is that there's so much enthusiasm around the stocks around the investment. People are very hungry for the results and it's very hard to see those results at least now. And people really want to see the results to justify the investment on the other end. So there's maybe some over exuberance or over enthusiasm here in trying to see and and really attribute A.I. to certain results at this point. Watch for the words productivity and efficiency I guess. Steve thanks. Thanks. With a deep.

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Is AI behind recent job cuts? Here's what to know

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