If you’re one of the millions of Americans who earn a living wage, it can be hard to stay positive in light of recent headlines. Jack Dorsey’s Block cuts 4,000 roles citing AI, which comes after Amazon’s ongoing layoffs, which sent some 16,000 office workers Packing. Meanwhile, Oracle has just announced that it is killing it at least 20,000 employees From its ranks.
in one interview with Psychiatry TimesPsychiatrist Andrew Brown argued that the economic distress associated with this type of unemployment also has clinical side effects. Brown is a psychological professional who focuses primarily on the mental health of the unemployed. were warned earlier About how AI-driven job losses fuel anxiety and self-doubt. Now, those warnings are becoming all too real.
He suggests that “what we can expect to see” with the onslaught of AI jobs is “an exacerbation” of the concerns that typically come with loss of income. This much is clear: Without money to pay for rent, groceries, heat, health care, or other necessities of life, people don’t really succeed. Brown claims that one of the hidden effects of all this is an increased risk of psychological illness.
“The initial shock is the job loss,” Brown explains, but then, “when joblessness becomes prolonged, when it becomes a chronic, reality-based problem, you see a lot of other psycho-mental illnesses and morbidities.” Clinically, he explains, it can occur even in individuals who have no previous history of mental distress.
Whether you buy the AI-related job loss stories — which, to be fair, is likely a gross oversimplification — the outlook for the labor market is looks quite serious Without paying attention.
“We can’t just have individuals who suffer through one or two job losses,” Brown says. “We can expect gradual job loss and long-term uncertainty, and therefore chronic anxiety about one’s future, one’s future in the workplace, one’s future ability to sustain oneself economically.”
“It will no longer be possible for people to develop a coherent and sustainable personal narrative about their professional identity, because the ability to contribute to the workforce has become so fluid, so fragmented.”
He says that as this progresses, our sense of personal usefulness based on the development of specialized skills during a career will also be under threat. Brown concluded: “What we will see with AI is that, not only will someone have to develop a new skill set once or twice, but there will be a gradual way in which skills suddenly become useless.”
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