Month: November 2025

• A philosophy professor warns that reliance on AI is quietly eroding workers’ core skills.
• She says junior employees risk becoming “useless” when they over-rely on AI tools.
• Data shows most ChatGPT use is personal, raising concerns about cognitive offloading.

Companies are racing to adopt AI tools they believe will supercharge productivity. But one professor warned that the technology may be quietly hollowing out the workforce instead.

Anastasia Berg, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine, said that new research — and what she’s hearing directly from colleagues across various industries — shows that employees who heavily rely on AI are losing core skills at a startling rate.

“We have a tremendous amount of empirical data on this question of skill attrition or skill atrophy,” Berg said on “The Philosopher” podcast this week. “We talk a lot about what it takes to acquire a skill,” but skills also require maintaining, she said

While Berg did not cite particular studies, there is research from Oxford University Press and journals, including Springer and MDPI, that suggests AI may boost speed and engagement in learning, but often at the cost of depth, critical thinking, creativity, and long-term skill development.

AI could be damaging the workers who need to learn the most

Berg said the workers most vulnerable to this deskilling effect are junior employees.

She said it’s not just a problem with the humanities subjects; computer science professors say that students and early-career developers are relying so heavily on AI tools that they’re no longer learning how to write or debug code on their own.

“It’s one thing for a senior coder to use AI,” she said. “But the junior people are useless because they cannot help themselves from using it.”

Because they lean on AI from day one, Berg said, they never build the foundational knowledge required to understand what the AI is doing — let alone verify or correct it.

AI is becoming a crutch — even outside work

Berg said AI dependency is spreading far beyond the workplace. Adults now consult chatbots for everything from emotional support to daily decision-making — a shift she believes erodes independent judgment.

“The majority — if not something close to — of AI use among adults isn’t work-related,” she said, pointing to “constant advice,” “a lot of weird sociability,” and “emotional task management.”

An analysis of 1.58 million ChatGPT conversations by researchers at OpenAI, Duke University, and Harvard University found that by June 2025, 73% of messages from adult users were non-work-related, though the study did not break down the specific non-work uses.

That kind of reliance, she said, weakens the cognitive capacities people need not only to perform specialized jobs but to function independently in everyday life.

A looming crisis of competence

Berg’s point is that AI doesn’t merely automate tasks — it automates the very processes through which people develop their skills.

Once workers grow dependent on AI, they lose the friction that strengthens their ability to reason, problem-solve, and make decisions.

“We have them compromising their most basic levels of their ability,” she said. “The threat to the highest level of their ability is just tremendous.”

If companies continue to push AI into every workflow under the banner of efficiency, she said, they may end up with a generation of employees who appear more productive on paper but lack the ability to perform without digital hand-holding.

In other words, AI might not be enhancing the workforce. It might be slowly dismantling it.

• Uber, Lyft, and other apps market themselves as ideal side hustles.
• One driver said the work hasn’t fit well with her schedule as a medical student.
• The driver has looked at other gigs, such as substitute teaching, to make money.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Porshaye Watkins, a 37-year-old ride-hailing driver for Uber and Lyft in Atlanta. Business Insider verified her work and expenses. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I started medical school in January 2020. Then, life happened.

My grandmother passed. She raised me, so after that, I had to navigate life a little differently. I became the sole caretaker for my Vietnam War veteran grandfather and my intellectually disabled adult brother.

In the fall of last year, I had the wonderful idea to use rideshare to supplement my income while studying and caring for my family. However, it has not been what I’ve planned.

The story I had heard from others who drove rideshare was that they did it full-time and were able to make thousands of dollars a week. But the most profitable times to work don’t always fall within the hours I’m able to spend outside and work. Sometimes I have to study when lots of people are requesting rides, such as at night.

Initially, when I started driving rideshare, I rented a vehicle through Lyft. It was very expensive: I was paying about $300 a week for the car, and that doesn’t include a deposit, taxes, fees, or insurance. So I was paying over $1,000 a month for a car that I didn’t own. When some rides paid as little as $2 or $3, it didn’t make financial sense. Earlier this year, I ended up buying my own car.

Some weeks, I end up driving for 55 hours to make enough money to cover my expenses. So far, I’ve completed about 1,400 trips on Uber and 500 on Lyft. I’m taking a break from school, although I plan to re-enroll and complete my final year in January.

As a future doctor, I see certain behaviors among other drivers that concern me. Like me, a lot of other ride-hailing drivers whom I talk to while working or getting rides myself say they sacrifice downtime and sleep to drive. That can make them more anxious, especially late at night, which puts everyone on the road at risk.

(Editor’s note: A Lyft spokesperson said driver health and well-being is a top priority, and the company encourages drivers to take breaks and limits drivers to working 12 hours at once. An Uber spokesperson declined to comment.)

I’ve also noticed that I’m sitting a lot more as a driver than I used to when I was in medical school. It doesn’t do the body good. I’m trying to figure out a way to get more active again.

Over the past year or so, I’ve realized that driving for rideshare is not a sustainable side hustle for me. I’ve started applying for other jobs, but I usually don’t hear anything back. I’ve also been making grocery and restaurant deliveries through Instacart and DoorDash. The main alternative that has worked out for me is working as a substitute teacher.

It’s devastating to me that I’m working this hard. I hoped the rideshare industry could be a reliable option for someone like me who needs flexibility, but it’s not.

Do you have a story to share about Uber or other gig work? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or 808-854-4501.

• There’s an ongoing debate in the tech world about whether we’re in the midst of an AI bubble.
• That debate is just now starting to make its way into the halls of power in Washington.
• AOC said that we could be in a “massive” bubble — and there should be no bailout if it pops.

Are we in the middle of an AI bubble? Ask a lawmaker, and they probably won’t have a definitive take for you.

“If I knew that, I’d be in a different line of work,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat who represents much of Silicon Valley, told Business Insider.

The AI bubble debate has been raging in the tech world since August, when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that investors had grown “overexcited” about the technology.

There are also concerns about circular spending patterns among tech companies investing in AI technology, and fears that companies won’t be able to recoup the billions of dollars they’re spending on data centers and other AI infrastructure. Bill Gates has explicitly compared it to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.

However, many in the tech world remain confident that there’s no bubble, citing continued high demand for AI products.

“Are we in an AI bubble? I have no idea,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii told Business Insider. “Even the AI people don’t know.”

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said that while she was unsure whether there’s a bubble, she’s concerned by “how much of the economic activity in the stock market and across the country is driven by this one sector.”

“If it is overvalued, when that bubble pops, it’s going to be felt everywhere,” Warren said. “The concentration makes the economy far more vulnerable than it otherwise would be.”

One of the few lawmakers who’s been outspoken about the potential for a bubble is Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who said at a hearing last week that we may be in a “massive economic bubble” that could pose “2008-style threats to economic stability.”

“Should this bubble pop, we should not be entertaining a bailout,” Ocasio-Cortez added.

The debate is slowly making its way to Capitol Hill as the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress are pursuing ways to make it easier for the AI industry to do business.

President Donald Trump, when asked, has largely shrugged off questions about whether he’s worried about a bubble.

“I guess. I worry about everything,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” earlier this month. “I hope it’s gonna be very good. But if it’s not so good, we’re protected.”

Trump has begun to talk up the need to restrict states’ ability to regulate AI, reviving a fight that played out over the summer as Congress considered the “Big Beautiful Bill.”

The bill originally included a provision that would have blocked states from enacting some regulations on AI for 10 years. It was strongly supported by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee who’s positioned himself as an ally of the AI industry on Capitol Hill. It was later stripped out of the megabill in a 99-1 vote.

When asked last week whether he sees a bubble in the AI industry, Cruz was circumspect.

“Will there be uncertainty? Will there be economic challenges? Of course,” Cruz told Business Insider. “But for technology of this magnitude, it’s in our interest that America win the race, and not China.”

Ocasio-Cortez argued that there’s a connection between the potential bubble and financial incentives to make AI technology more exploitative.

“People’s deepest fears, secrets, emotional content, relationships can all be mined for this empty promise that we’re getting from these companies to turn a profit,” Ocasio-Cortez said at the hearing.

But for some of those who want to see stronger regulation of AI, the question of a bubble is largely beside the point.

“Bubble, no bubble, whatever,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said. “We need to focus on the effect on working people.”

• People analytics firm Visier analyzed who is more likely to be rehired within 15 months of being laid off.
• Managers and workers in the finance and retail industries were more likely to be called back.
• Andrea Derler, principal researcher, expects the rate to rise as companies deal with AI and uncertainty.

Sometimes a layoff isn’t a farewell forever.

Rehires of people who were laid off could become more popular in a shaky job market. Visier, a people analytics firm, looked at how many people were rehired at their previous employers within 15 months of being terminated. Visier found about 5.3% of laid-off employees were rehired, based on global data from 2018 to 2024 covering 142 large organizations with over 2 million employee records.

Andrea Derler, principal researcher at Visier, expects boomerang hires of people who were previously laid off to increase as companies figure out how to handle “AI-induced pressures” and economic uncertainty.

“In times of extreme turmoil, where workforce planning is made even more difficult due to rapid, unexpected, and unpredictable changes, layoff boomerangs seem to be more prevalent,” Derler said.

Separately, ADP Research found that the share of new hires who were boomerang employees increased from 26% in March 2022 to 35% this past March. “In an era where the outlook on the jobs market is fuzzy or uncertain, it makes sense for both employers and employees to stick with what they know,” Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist, previously told Business Insider.

The US is in a mostly frozen job market marked by low layoffs, but also low hiring. Job growth slowed from a monthly average of 111,000 between January and March to about 62,000 between July and September.

Layoffs in the US are low, but announcements are adding up. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that there have been over 1 million job cuts announced from US-based employers this year as of October. Verizon, Amazon, government agencies, and others have made headlines for their decisions.

Managers and people in finance and retail are more likely to rejoin their companies

Derler said Visier’s data doesn’t show a surge in manager layoffs, but they are also more likely to be rehired. “Organizations realize that it’s really hard to find a good manager because the manager is responsible for a lot of things: performance, productivity, but also engagement of other employees,” she said.

Among the handful of industries Visier looked at, finance and retail had the highest rates of laid-off employees that were rehired at 7.5% each. Derler said retail has a lot of turnover, so it makes sense that workers may go back and forth. She suspects the rate for the finance industry is because the work duties involve certain skills and expertise. Instead of tapping into a new talent pool, businesses may turn to people previously on their payroll and who have already demonstrated their capabilities.

Meanwhile, Derler said tech’s rate of 4.3%, below the average rate and the lowest among the five industries looked at, could be because desired skills and knowledge quickly evolve. So, unlike finance, firms may want to look at a new talent pool.

“Prompt engineers a year ago was the big job — nobody talks about prompt engineering anymore,” Derler said. “Skills are changing so fast, so that’s why I can assume that they’ll be looking for new people with new skills rather than those who they know.”

Before being laid off, network and develop your skills

Derler said all parties need to have good “layoff hygiene,” where both sides are respectful. She said workers should also try not to internalize their layoff or think it’s something they did wrong.

She also emphasized the importance of always keeping up your skills, so that if you are laid off, you can confidently add your knowledge to your résumé or talk about it in an interview.

Derler also suggested staying connected with people you worked well with in case you do rejoin — not just so it’s pleasant to return, but because they might know about an opening.

Derler said she interviewed some boomerangs and found some were still in touch with their old boss. “When their manager then realized they actually needed somebody again, they would be the first that they would call,” she said. “Makes sense, right? Because you know the person, you get on well with them.”

Have you gone back to your previous job? Are you a hiring manager who has made boomerang hires? Reach out to this reporter at mhoff@businessinsider.com.