One of the things artificial intelligence seems particularly adept at is cybersecurity—at least if you buy the marketing pitch of models like Anthropic’s Mythos, which supposedly spotted vulnerabilities that humans failed to patch for more than 20 years. But instead of putting cybersecurity experts out of work, AI has actually created a hiring spree, according to the New York Times.
Citing headhunter companies that help place cyber engineers at major firms, the Times found that demand for these experts is so strong that recruiters have struggled to find enough bodies to fill the open roles. Glassdoor data shows that cybersecurity job listings are up 11% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, and that growth is expected to continue.
There are two ways to read the rush of cybersecurity experts: companies are so panicked by the potential hacking power of AI models—Anthropic has claimed its Mythos model is so powerful that it can’t be made publicly available because it poses unprecedented cybersecurity risks—that they are ramping up on people to fortify their defenses before the cyber apocalypse hits; or, everyone went entirely too hard on vibe coding and it’s created such a clusterfuck of bad code that companies have to hire more humans to come in and unwind the mess.
Odds are that it’s more the latter, though the preferred framing throughout the industry seems to be the former. Earlier this month, Wired reported on research that found more than 5,000 vibe-coded web apps created using popular AI software development tools that were plagued with security issues that made sensitive information trivially accessible.
We can probably safely assume that’s happening all over. Even the big tech firms have had some notable vibe-coding issues when letting AI agents step in and act as humans. For instance, Amazon reportedly had a server knocked offline because an AI agent decided to delete and recreate a database on its own.
AI is having an impact on jobs, but maybe not like we think
Growth in any part of the economy feels pretty rare at the moment, but if one zooms out from the booming cybersecurity sector, it seems AI isn’t having the impact on employment that one might think. MIT Technology Review pulled data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that the unemployment rate for jobs that have the most AI exposure is actually lower than roles with less perceived risk. There also hasn’t been a meaningful shift from at-risk roles to “safer” ones, per Yale’s Budget Lab research.
Hell, even some professions that you’d think would be hurting are finding some new life. Wired recently reported that AI companies are hiring up a slew of philosophers as they try to figure out what the concept of an AI model that behaves “ethically” even means. And then there’s the new jobs being created. An apparent upstart AI firm went viral over the weekend, publishing a job listing for “Masturbation Consultants” to help hone a “Daily Guided Masturbation” feature.
That’s not to say people aren’t losing their jobs. Layoffs continue, and AI is often mentioned as a reason why. But the reality seems to be more that corporations are “AI washing” their downsizing efforts, claiming that they’re replacing workers with new technology when they’re really mostly just cutting payroll.
Talking up your embrace of AI while laying off real people who’ll eventually have to come back to fix your trash code? Now that’s masturbatory.
