Like horses laid off by the car: BT tech chief’s AI job losses analogy draws anger

Harmeen Mehta said: ‘I don‘t know how horses felt when the car was invented, but they didn’t complain that they were put out of a job; they didn’t go on strike.’ Photograph: Chronicle/Alamy

BT’s technology chief, Harmeen Mehta, has suggested workers whose jobs are threatened by AI accept their fate as “evolution”, comparing them to horses replaced by the car.

In an interview with the business website Raconteur, Mehta said: “I don‘t know how horses felt when the car was invented, but they didn’t complain that they were put out of a job; they didn’t go on strike.