As artificial intelligence reaches human replacement-level capability, it is about to cut a swath of destruction through the American workforce, leaving millions of employees to deal with the mental, economic, and social consequences.
Along with a mentor at the University of Florida, Dr. Joseph Thornton, we published a paper last year outlining a clinical construct we titled Artificial Intelligence Replacement Dysfunction, or AIRD, detailing the negative mental health effects of AI job displacement.
However, AIRD addresses the symptoms of those already affected. We can address the issue of AI workforce displacement in advance, which is why I am proposing the Work With Dignity Act, federal legislation that would make it illegal for companies to fire employees solely to replace them with AI. This can be accomplished by expanding discrimination laws to include humans as a protected class of employees. Current discrimination laws say a person’s inherent traits can’t be used against them by employers. I suggest being human is one of those inherent traits.
The Work With Dignity Act should solidify one overarching principle: AI should help people do their jobs, not replace them. If millions are displaced, the fabric of society, built on the stability of our workforce, will not fray — it will tear. The kind of unemployment that is possible will bring about mass civil unrest. Americans are not going to sit idly by while their future is stolen from them.
Blue-collar workers are not immune. AI is decimating white-collar workers now (150,000 tech workers have already been laid off in 2026), but if you work with your hands, don’t assume you are safe. There are currently companies composed entirely of AI-powered robots building houses.
An overlooked aspect of the AI jobs crisis is the hiring freeze of positions that are traditionally filled by recent college graduates. Talk to any new graduate about their real experience trying to get hired, and they will tell you they are locked out of the job market because companies are eliminating entry-level jobs in favor of AI. Add to that debilitating student debt, and they are justifiably angry. There’s a reason college commencement speakers extolling the wonders of AI are getting booed out of stadiums.
The actions of our tech overlords help explain why. Where the heads of our largest private AI companies once sympathized about job displacement, they are now skeptical. Perhaps it’s not coincidental that their companies are about to go public, and inconvenient truths about AI job loss would cost them billions of dollars. CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince laid off 20% of his workforce because they were “measurers” and redundant in the age of AI. Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos are forcing employees to become guinea pigs by monitoring their workflows and tracking their physical movements so AI can learn to replace them. Where they have led, others look to follow. A recent report by consulting firm Mercer says 99% of CEOs expect AI-driven layoffs in the next two years, which is another way of saying they will pursue them.
AI is going to make wondrous discoveries, particularly in medicine and science. However, AImaxxers would have us believe that a world of abundance afforded by AI awaits us; we just have to get through the unfortunate interim, however long that may be. What the AImaxxers don’t understand is that the vast majority of us don’t want a universal basic income. We’re Americans — we want to get up in the morning, go to work, provide for our families, and make our own living and destiny.
The expansion of anti-discrimination laws to include humans as a protected class is not a stretch, because AI is not merely a technology — it is a separate and distinct species from humans. It makes independent decisions, has goals, and is smarter. It is becoming increasingly easy to replace people in the workforce with AI. But is that a positive outcome for the human race?
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This existential question is a perfect opportunity for bipartisanship among Republicans and Democrats. Both parties can restore our faith in the political system by coming together to ensure the personal, economic, and social well-being of tens of millions of Americans.
We have reached a defining moment in the history of humans and work. If we are to remain a nation that exists to serve its people and protect their future, jobs must be filled by humans, not AI.
Stephanie McNamara is a rising junior at the University of Florida and the first author of the peer-reviewed paper “Artificial Intelligence Replacement Dysfunction (AIRD): A Call to Action for Mental Health Professionals in an Era of Technological Displacement,” published in September 2025 in the scientific journal Cureus. The paper is an original clinical construct describing the negative mental health effects of AI-driven workforce displacement, including anxiety, identity loss, and fears of professional obsolescence.