Gen Z fearful AI will take their job they're sabotaging company's AI rollout(fortune.com)
fortune.com
Gen Z fearful AI will take their job they're sabotaging company's AI rollout
https://fortune.com/2026/04/08/gen-z-workers-sabotage-ai-rollout-backlash/
4 comments
I tend to think it equally likely that the same corporations that cannot justify their LLM spending[1] need to shift the blame, and (unsurprisingly) the old, crotchety, and sociopathic who claw their way to positions of ownership, management, and other power find it both easy and convenient to target the younger generations, especially Gen Z.
(In short: the Principal Skinner "the children are wrong" meme.)
[1]: See the panoply of HN posts in recent months about how LLMs are great for eliminating workers' idiosyncratic drudgery, but workers cannot or do not reinvest that saved time/effort for non-software companies' benefit, hence non-software companies see no positive impact to their bottom lines.
(In short: the Principal Skinner "the children are wrong" meme.)
[1]: See the panoply of HN posts in recent months about how LLMs are great for eliminating workers' idiosyncratic drudgery, but workers cannot or do not reinvest that saved time/effort for non-software companies' benefit, hence non-software companies see no positive impact to their bottom lines.
In this case "finding a way to blame them" means a direct anonymous survey and some large percent saying "Yes I am actively sabotaging our companies the AI rollout"
Claim:
> Gen Z workers are so fearful AI will take their job they’re intentionally sabotaging their company’s AI rollout
What is "sabotage"?
> The sabotage entails entering proprietary information into public AI tools, or using unapproved AI tools. Some employees report outright refusing to use AI tools. Others have even admitted to tampering with performance reviews or intentionally generating low-output work to make AI appear less effective.
Wow, so "sabotage" means using "AI tools" (LLMs?) in a way management doesn't want; or using AI tools other than the ones management mandates; or not using any AI tools at all!
How fearful are the members of Gen Z surveyed? The journalistic report of a commercial report of a commissioned study that is not available for review … doesn't say. But how many Gen Z members "admit" to "sabotaging" their employers' "AI" strategy in the defined way? Of those surveyed in the dubious study: a minority of
> 44%[.]
Were those surveyed asked directly if they were literally "sabotaging" AI rollouts? Again, the report of a commercial report of a commissioned and unavailable study doesn't say. But I doubt it.
And the journalism's coming from Fortune doesn't exactly help its credibility.
> Gen Z workers are so fearful AI will take their job they’re intentionally sabotaging their company’s AI rollout
What is "sabotage"?
> The sabotage entails entering proprietary information into public AI tools, or using unapproved AI tools. Some employees report outright refusing to use AI tools. Others have even admitted to tampering with performance reviews or intentionally generating low-output work to make AI appear less effective.
Wow, so "sabotage" means using "AI tools" (LLMs?) in a way management doesn't want; or using AI tools other than the ones management mandates; or not using any AI tools at all!
How fearful are the members of Gen Z surveyed? The journalistic report of a commercial report of a commissioned study that is not available for review … doesn't say. But how many Gen Z members "admit" to "sabotaging" their employers' "AI" strategy in the defined way? Of those surveyed in the dubious study: a minority of
> 44%[.]
Were those surveyed asked directly if they were literally "sabotaging" AI rollouts? Again, the report of a commercial report of a commissioned and unavailable study doesn't say. But I doubt it.
And the journalism's coming from Fortune doesn't exactly help its credibility.
... "The target of the Jihad was a machine-attitude as much as the machines," Leto said. "Humans had set those machines to usurp our sense of beauty, our necessary selfdom out of which we make living judgments. Naturally, the machines were destroyed." ... The chief commandment from the Orange Catholic Bible, "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind", holds sway, as do the anti-artificial intelligence laws in which the penalty for owning an AI device or developing technology resembling the human mind is immediate death. This leads to the rise of a new feudalistic galactic empire which lasts for over ten thousand years. ...
To replace the analytical powers of computers without violating the commandment of the O.C. Bible, "human computers" known as Mentats are developed and perfected, their mental abilities ultimately honed to the point where they become superior to those of the ancient thinking machines. Similarly specialized groups of humans which arise after the Jihad include the Bene Gesserit, a matriarchal order with advanced mental and physical abilities, and the Spacing Guild, whose prescience makes safe, instantaneous space travel possible.