Mark Cuban said AI firms should spend billions to help cities hit by job losses as a 'cost of doing business'

Mark Cuban has advice for AI companies: spend billions on people directly affected by AI.

In a Thursday post on X, the billionaire former “Shark Tank” investor wrote that AI companies need to start spending money “to help towns and cities that may be impacted by job losses.” He said the companies are losing a PR battle with the masses and have to start courting them. “Billions of dollars is a lot of money across towns and city programs.

Across the major LLMs, it’s a cost of doing business,” Cuban said. “One thing I have learned is being hated is not good for business,” he said, adding that big AI companies “all suck at putting people first.” Cuban talked about another group that is largely affected by AI — creatives.

He said that every creative he knows is terrified about what AI will do to their profession, and the companies need to go to artists in LA and NYC and talk to them about providing financial and creative support to win them over. “You must meet them face to face and basically do what they say,” he wrote.

On the flip side, he said AI companies paying famous people to endorse their activities was a “dumb” idea. “Given the number of data centers and power that is needed, today and going forward, if you don’t kiss the asses of the people that go to work every day, and are just trying to pay their bills, you will fall far far short of the capacity you need to make your business work,” Cuban wrote on X.

Cuban’s post comes as AI-linked job losses have skyrocketed this year.

At least 16 companies in the US have announced that they were laying off staff because of AI-affiliated job redundancies, including Snap, Cisco, and Coinbase.

There’s been backlash at college graduation ceremonies, too, with speakers who mention AI getting booed.