ChatGPT and other prolific AI tools have been seen as a scarecrow since they hit the scene last year; “Eventually they’ll get your job” is the mantra, but we continue to shrug at this doom and gloom. Now, The Washington Post reports that productive AI is not a horror story and is actually starting to put people out of work.

Generative AI is far from perfect, and the more you allow it to chatter, the more obvious its faults become. But companies think AI is “good enough” for the job, according to social media writers.

The Post ran the story of Olivia Lipkin, a 25-year-old copywriter from San Francisco who works at a tech startup. He said he didn’t think much of her when ChatGPT was launched last November, but in the following months she noticed admins calling her Olivia/ChatGPT on Slack (how rude!), and she was fired in April.

Lipkin reportedly never gave a reason for the job loss, but learned that company executives wrote that using ChatGPT was cheaper than hiring a writer; The reason why he was fired became clear to him.

“Every time people brought up ChatGPT, I felt insecure and worried that it would replace me,” he said. “Now I had proof that it was true, that these fears were justified, and now I’ve lost my job to AI.”

Microsoft has been a major supporter of generative AI by funding OpenAI to continue its work and launching Bing Chat using ChatGPT. Microsoft has tried to balance the fact that AI can perform some tasks that humans do, with the idea that these tools should be used to help humans, not to replace them.

One of the most important points in Lipkin’s history is the economic period we live in. With interest rates skyrocketing around the world, consumers are spending less and businesses are cutting back to cut costs and focus on profitable business.

Lypkin’s layoff is likely to have more to do with a tight budget than ChatGPT coming in to take over all the business, especially given that he works at a startup. The real impact of productive AI will be seen once inflation falls, rates fall and return to normal, if humans are permanently replaced, it could create major problems for those affected.