In the era where several tech companies are conducting mass layoffs owing to an economic slowdown and advancement in artificial technology (AI), Zerodha CEO and Co-Founder Nithin Kamath has announced that the company will not fire anyone if their job becomes redundant due to improvements in technology. He also stated that the stock brokerage company also created an "internal AI policy" to give clarity to their employees in an environment of AI-related job loss anxiety.
He took to Twitter and said, "We've just created an internal AI policy @zerodhaonline to give clarity to the team, given the AI/job loss anxiety. This is our stance: "We will not fire anyone on the team just because we have implemented a new piece of technology that makes an earlier job redundant."
In a long thread, he stated that after nearly two years of not believing in the prospect of AI taking over human jobs, the company now believes that AI will take jobs and disrupt society.
"In today's capitalism, businesses prioritize shareholder value creation above stakeholders like employees, customers, vendors, the country, & the planet. Markets incentivize business leaders to prioritize profits over everything else; if not, shareholders vote them out," he noted.
Mr Kamath also talked about the current wave of layoffs. "Many companies will likely let go of employees and blame it on AI. In the process, companies will earn more and make their shareholders wealthier, worsening wealth inequality. This isn't a good outcome for humanity."
He believes that there might be some regulations put by countries and governments in the future. "While the hope is for governments worldwide to put some guardrails, it may be unlikely given the deglobalization rhetoric. No country would want to sit idle while another becomes more powerful on the back of AI." Mr Kamath also recognised that "it is unlikely that humans will be able to compete with intelligent machines in many walks of life." Citing an example, he shared a digital art which took him only "a few seconds" to make. The image shows a CEO of a company being replaced by an intelligent machine in the style of the artist Leonardo da Vinci.
Concluding the post, Mr Kamath stated that it will take humans a few years to witness the real impact of AI. "Businesses with financial freedom should, if nothing else, give their teams that helped build the business time to adapt. I know some of this might sound weird coming from the CEO of a broking firm," he said.
