Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas is coming under fire for arguing people should embrace being replaced by artificial intelligence since they don’t like their jobs, anyway.
The co-founder of the San Francisco-based company even said on the All-In podcast that the jarring shift in how work gets done will lead to a “glorious future” everyone should be happy about.
“The reality is most people don’t enjoy their jobs,” the exec said on the episode published Monday.
“There’s suddenly a new possibility, a new opportunity, to use these tools, learn them, and start your own mini business,” he opined. “Even if there is temporary job displacement to deal with, that sort of glorious future is what we should look forward to.”
Listeners were quick to turn to voice outrage, with some saying Srinivas was out of touch with everyday people who are struggling to make ends meet after getting laid off.
“A man worth millions just told the single mother who lost her job that she should be grateful because now she can start a business using his product and called her unemployment a glorious future,” one commenter wrote on X. “This is what happens when you’ve never needed a paycheck to keep the lights on.”
Asked for comment Tuesday, a Perplexity spokesperson told The Post: “Since Perplexity launched in December 2022, Americans have filed 16 million new business applications, contributing to the reversal of a 40-year decline and proving yet again that breakthrough technologies don’t eliminate opportunity, they create it.”
Recent months have seen a number of large companies announce brutal layoffs — with some firms, like Amazon and Block, blaming AI for at least part of the trend.
“His view treats job loss as a temporary shock that opens a path toward one-person or very small firms that produce real revenue without the payroll that older companies needed,” one commenter wrote.
“But the problem with this scenario is that losing a stable paycheck is painful for most, and many workers cannot instantly become founders. Economists still disagree on whether AI is replacing labor at large scale or merely giving companies a new excuse for cuts.”
Nevertheless, Srinivas had his supporters.
“He is kinda right though,” a user wrote. “A few years ago, one person couldn’t realistically run ops, marketing, support, and product all alone, but now they can – and some of them are making real numbers.”
Another added: “This shift could indeed democratize entrepreneurship by lowering business creation costs.”
Goldman Sachs economists said in February that AI was responsible for up to 10,000 monthly net job losses last year in some domestic industries.
Executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said AI caused 11,039 job cuts in February in the tech sector for a total of 33,330 in 2026. That’s an increase of 51% from the 22,042 tech job cuts during the same period last year.
