Perplexity CEO's Interaction with Striking New York Times Workers Does Not Reflect Well on the AI Industry

The CEO of AI start-up Perplexity recently got a fair amount of attention for offering to replace the labour of striking New York Times workers. Without weighing on in the specifics of the NYT Tech Workers strike itself, I wanted to highlight the general “shape” of this interaction — in particular, how the “AI Industry” is positioning itself relative to labour interest groups, and how this story speaks to broader concerns about labour substitution by AI.

Anyone who makes a salary relies on some degree of labour leverage. In other words, behind every contract is some non-zero bargaining power (this is tautological, to some degree). While historically, conservatives often have had a less favourable view of unions (see e.g. Pew polling in the US), people who may not support unions in general but still rely on a salary or contracts still depend on their own individual labour leverage. Some professions may have also have individual members who are “anti-union” or “anti-strike”, but still have professional organizations that create leverage on their behalf through e.g. licensing.