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A hot potato: A court in China has reached a ruling that would likely be welcomed by many people in the rest of the world: that companies cannot legally lay off workers or even cut their salaries just because an AI can replace them.

We see a lot of stories about US tech giants laying off employees because AI systems are replacing them. As was the case with Meta, Amazon, and Block , these cuts are usually framed as ways to streamline businesses and embrace new technologies – even when they're not – which tends to give the firms' share prices a boost.

However, the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court has ruled that a company illegally fired a worker after he refused to take a demotion after an AI took his job.

The worker, identified only as Zhou, was hired in November 2022 as a quality assurance supervisor with a monthly compensation of 25,000 yuan ($3,655).…