Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is pushing back on one of Silicon Valley's favorite AI talking points: that artificial intelligence is already rendering huge numbers of workers obsolete.

In a recent interview with Channel NewsAsia, cited by Futurism, Huang said too many executives are using AI as a convenient excuse for layoffs — and scaring people in the process.

What happened?

Speaking to Channel NewsAsia, Huang criticized business leaders who have blamed job cuts on AI, arguing that the timeline simply does not add up. If AI only recently became genuinely useful at scale, he said, then it is hard to explain layoffs from years earlier as being caused by the technology.

Huang called that narrative "too lazy" and suggested that other factors are more likely to be behind the cuts, including over-hiring and the enormous cost of building AI in the first place. Advanced AI systems require massive investments in cloud computing.

His comments follow several high-profile rounds of layoffs that were framed as AI-related. Earlier this year, Block CEO Jack Dorsey outlined plans to cut the company's workforce by almost half while pointing to "intelligence tools" speeding up change. Former staffers, however, said the bigger problem was over-hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Huang is not alone in questioning that explanation. Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis recently faulted leadership at other firms for pinning layoffs on AI and said it showed "a lack of imagination."

Why does it matter?

Public claims about AI replacing people can shape hiring, pay, morale, and the career decisions people make. If executives are using AI as a cover for broader financial problems, employees and investors may be getting a distorted picture of what is really happening inside those companies.

AI can automate repetitive tasks and improve productivity, but that does not always mean entire jobs disappear overnight. In many cases, roles shift rather than vanish, and new jobs can emerge alongside the technology.

AI may create genuinely useful tools, but its rapid expansion can also pose security risks, lead to misuse, and cause unintended social consequences if companies move too quickly or oversell what the technology can do.

What's being done?

Some leaders are now trying to reset the conversation. Huang said companies with real ambition should be using AI to grow faster and become more productive, not simply to justify shrinking their payrolls. In his view, the most successful businesses will likely use more AI and still hire more people as they expand.

Huang himself warned last year that some jobs could be lost if productivity gains outpaced new ideas and opportunities. Now, the message coming from parts of the industry seems to be that AI's impact depends heavily on how companies choose to deploy it.

Huang summed up his frustration pretty clearly: "It was just a way for them to sound smart, and I really hate that … I think we're scaring people, and that's irresponsible."

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