When it comes to AI nothing's right, Silicon Valley is torn

Long ReadIn California, the rise of artificial intelligence no longer generates the unanimous enthusiasm it once did. Anxiety is mounting, especially among students and engineers, as jobs have been cut and democratic risks have grown more threatening.

When Ellen Yang started looking for a job in 2025, she was not too worried. A 23-year-old American woman, the daughter of Chinese parents who immigrated to Boston before she was born, she was finishing her fourth year of an English and linguistics degree at Stanford, California's most prestigious university, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. While studying for her degree, she had worked for tech companies, notably in marketing. The golden path of San Francisco Bay Area careers lay wide open before her.

And yet, nothing went as planned. Yang sent out hundreds of applications but only received AI-generated rejections. She could not even get an interview, in which she could detail her skills. In San Francisco, several tech companies began to stop hiring or even lay people off. Many of her classmates were struggling. The mood "was pretty grim," she said, adding that "in some of my friend groups, we just instituted a policy where we would not talk about job hunting with each other because it just made everyone stressed."

Then came the moment when she had to face the facts: she couldn't find a job. She didn't dare confide in her parents, who had invested so much in their children's academic success – her brother is studying at Harvard, Massachusetts. "The first time I have ever actually started going to a therapist (...) was when I was job hunting. (...) I didn't know how to talk about the shame and the fear that I felt graduating from one of the best schools in the world (...) having spent my entire life waiting for this moment and just nothing happening."

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