By TOI World Desk
Publication Date: 2026-04-01 17:20:00
Aravind Srinivas, the Indian-origin CEO of Perplexity AI, was caught in a major controversy after he defended AI-triggered layoffs and said people do not love their jobs anyway. In a podcast, Srinivas who studied at IIT-Madras and then did his PhD at UC Berkeley, said job losses will open many new doors giving people new opportunities where they get to do what they love. “The reality is most people don’t enjoy their jobs. There’s suddenly a new possibility… to use these tools, learn them, and start your own mini business… Even if there is temporary job displacement to deal with, that sort of glorious future is what we should look forward to,” Srinivas said, making layoff look desirable. The comment came under intense criticism as social media users called for his deportation. The comment gained significance as Oracle laid off 30,000 people across the world and people are lamenting on social media how they were blindslided and were informed by a 6am email that March 31 was their last day of work after they worked at Oracle for decades. “A man worth millions just told the single mother who lost her job that she should be grateful because now she can start a business using his product and called her unemployment a glorious future,” one commenter wrote on X. “This is what happens when you’ve never needed a paycheck to keep the lights on.”