160 official layoff filings. Zero cited AI. So why is every CEO suddenly blaming it?

Researchers reviewed 160 NY State layoff filings — Amazon, Goldman Sachs, all of them — and not one cited AI as the reason. The real drivers: pandemic over-hiring, rising interest rates, and a stock market that rewards the framing.

Juan and Kate follow the paper trail: Jack Dorsey cutting half of Block's workforce after tripling headcount during

COVID, Zuckerberg claiming AI saves money while committing $65 billion to AI infrastructure, and the copycat effect where one high-profile announcement triggers a wave of CEOs rushing to say the same thing before their next earnings call.

Plus: what happens when tokens become part of your job offer and your company starts tracking how many prompts you run. That leaderboard is also a layoff list.

Hosted by Juan Faisal and Kate Cook. Slop World Podcast covers AI news with receipts — fact-checking Big Tech's claims and following the money on the stories everyone's hyping but nobody's verifying. New episodes every week.

Chapters:

00:00 AI Layoffs 2026: The Story They Want You to Believe

00:40 Sam Altman Called It AI-Washing (Then Changed His Mind)

01:32 Jack Dorsey, Block, and the Pandemic Headcount Trick

02:40 The Most-Quoted AI Researcher Says "No One Knows Anything"

03:25 Why Saying "AI Did It" Makes Your Stock Pop

04:45 The Copycat Effect: One CEO Pulls the Trigger for All

05:58 Andrew Yang Named This: The AI Layoff Contagion

06:48 Zuckerberg Saves Money by Spending $65B on AI

07:27 Employee Morale Doesn't Show Up on the Balance Sheet

08:52 Congrats, You Survived the Layoff. Now Do Everyone's Job.

10:02 Digg Came Back. AI Bots Killed It in Weeks.

10:37 The Future of Work: One Person = One Team?

13:08 The Token Economy and the End of Cheap AI

14:26 Tokens Are the New Benefits

15:10 If Your Company Tracks Your AI Use, Layoffs Are Next