# Unethical AI Tech marketing - Pricing in "Jobs Eliminated, FTE reductions"

**URL:** <https://community.humanetech.com/t/unethical-ai-tech-marketing-pricing-in-jobs-eliminated-fte-reductions/2765>\
**Category:** Ethics\
**Tags:** ai, ethics, workforce\
**Created:** [October 3, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/unethical-ai-tech-marketing-pricing-in-jobs-eliminated-fte-reductions/2765 "2018-10-03T23:02:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zincfoam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/f14d63/32.png) [@zincfoam](https://community.humanetech.com/u/zincfoam)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/unethical-ai-tech-marketing-pricing-in-jobs-eliminated-fte-reductions/2765/1 "2018-10-03T23:02:44Z")

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Hello everyone. This is my first post, although I’ve been aware of this community for some time. My post is about something I’ve increasingly seen in the last 18 months, but it’s making the bile rise in my throat.

We have a client, they make software that is a kind of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning system. I’ve recently seen some of their sales materials, and they are now pricing their product in “FTE Reduction” (FTE = “Full Time Equivalent”, or to speak in human terms, a person’s _job_.) They agree to a target number of jobs to be eliminated, and then deploy their software, and if the “bots” work as intended, the people are fired.

Yes, I’m well aware that technology replaces human work, and this has played out time and again, but the banality of it is just appalling. There is no plan to use the trained employees in new roles, no vision for, perhaps, using the technology to increase profitability to give people better wages or shorter hours (or both).

This is, to me, a critical example of “inhumane” technology.

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**Author:** ![aschrijver](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/community.humanetech.com/aschrijver/32/1498_2.png) [@aschrijver](https://community.humanetech.com/u/aschrijver)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2018, 10:22am UTC](https://community.humanetech.com/t/unethical-ai-tech-marketing-pricing-in-jobs-eliminated-fte-reductions/2765/2 "2018-10-04T10:22:58Z")

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(I improved your title, and added tags)

Hi @zincfoam, welcome to our community 🙂

This is quite shocking and indeed quite ‘inhumane’ technology.

What we can do as a community is start a ‘Naming & Shaming’ initiative, similar to [GDPRHallOfShame.com](http://GDPRHallOfShame.com) (currently offline, but discussed on Hacker News [here](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17143200)).

This could be combined with [Idea - Humane Technology Logo Program](http://community.humanetech.com/t/idea-humane-technology-logo-program/778) for those companies and businesses that are on the positive end of the scale.