Workers face unnamed grief as AI threatens professional identity, clinical research begins naming the psychological toll

In September 2025, two psychiatrists at the University of Florida College of Medicine published a paper proposing a new construct called Artificial Intelligence Replacement Dysfunction (AIRD), describing symptoms including anxiety, insomnia, depression, identity confusion, paranoia, and feelings of worthlessness in workers facing AI displacement. The authors note AIRD is 'a new, proposed clinical construct' and not yet a recognized diagnosis.

A 2025 qualitative study in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being found that participants experienced AI-related job displacement as 'the symbolic loss of professional identity, autonomy, and future prospects,' with the harm experienced 'not just as a career disruption but also as an erosion of personal identity.' Reddit threads show workers mourning the meaning of work before layoffs occur—a pattern of anticipatory mourning distinct from ordinary economic anxiety.

Anger at AI has escalated to physical acts: in April 2026, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's San Francisco home and traveled to OpenAI's headquarters to make threats, holding anti-AI views and facing attempted-murder and federal explosives charges. A related Reddit thread reached 26,928 upvotes framing the moment as the AI backlash turning revolutionary.