AI News Flash: This year’s tech layoff wave is heating up fast. According to job tracking platform TrueUp, there have been 363 layoff events so far affecting nearly 150,000 employees, with an average of 974 people losing their jobs daily—a 44% faster pace than last year. Last month alone saw nearly 40,000 layoffs, a two-year high, with AI being the top-cited reason across industries for the third consecutive month. However, the narrative that ‘AI is causing layoffs’ is facing increasing scrutiny. Payment company Block founder Jack Dorsey initially explained the near-halving of staff as ‘AI reshaping how work gets done,’ but later admitted under public pressure that the company had severely over-hired during the pandemic. Prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen went further, calling AI nothing more than a ‘silver bullet excuse’ for poor corporate management, estimating that large enterprises are generally overstaffed by 25% to 75%, using the AI hype as cover for headcount cuts.