‘We didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers,’ says automaker

Ford has admitted to rehiring hundreds of human workers after its aggressive AI adoption strategy backfired.

The US automaker hired over 350 veteran engineers, referred to internally as “gray beards”, over the past three years in order to address mistakes made by automated systems.

The staff will lead quality reviews after the automation issues cost the company billions of dollars, Bloomberg reported, while some workers will also help improve and train the AI systems.

“We had been relying more and more on automated quality systems and not getting the desired results,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s chief operating officer.

“We brought back technical specialists and they hunt for failure points before a part ever reaches the plant floor.”

  • Deestan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    731·
    17 hours ago

    There is no justice in this. Mass layoffs with selective re-hiring was the plan all along. If AI wasn’t the excuse, “the economy” would be and it would look the same.

    Disrupt the lives of hundreds or thousands of people, indiscriminately. Then bet on being able to get enough of them to come back on weaker terms, weaker contracts, and with reset seniority.