Does your CEO have AI psychosis? Aaron Levie thinks most of them do.

Box founder Aaron Levie accused many CEOs of suffering from "AI psychosis," arguing they are the least likely to understand the jobs they are replacing with artificial intelligence. The criticism comes amid a wave of tech layoffs attributed to AI, including ClickUp cutting 22% of its workforce for AI agents, and a 30% surge in DuckDuckGo installs from users rejecting AI-forced search results.

The people deciding that AI can replace your job are also the ones least likely to understand what your job truly involves, according to Box founder Aaron Levie, who pointed to this as an example of “ AI psychosis https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/tech-ceos-are-apparently-suffering-from-ai-psychosis/ .” Indeed, ClickUp recently cut 22% of its workforce https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/25/what-clickups-mass-layoff-tells-us-about-the-future-of-work/ for AI agents, tech layoffs in 2026 are already nearly matching all of 2025, and DuckDuckGo installs are climbing https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/duckduckgo-installs-are-up-30-as-users-reject-being-force-fed-googles-ai-search/ from users who want Google to stop forcing AI into search and just give them links. On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into what happens when the AI-pilled and the AI-skeptical are both right at the same time, plus three deals worth knowing about and Waymo’s new robotaxi hitting the road. Listen to the full episode to hear: - Kirsten’s first look at Waymo’s new Ojai robotaxi https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/28/waymos-newest-robotaxi-is-chinese-made-built-to-make-money-and-now-accepting-riders/ in Phoenix, and the crew’s thoughts on the company’s path to profitability - Cloud data storage giant Snowflake’s $6 billion five-year agreement with AWS https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/27/in-more-good-news-for-amazon-snowflake-signs-6b-deal-with-aws-for-ai-cpu-chips/ - Why Stord, the “anti-Amazon” fulfillment startup https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/amazon-fulfillment-competitor-stord-raises-250m-at-3b-valuation/ , just raised $250 million at a $3 billion valuation - What OpenRouter’s $113 million raise https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/26/openrouter-more-than-doubles-valuation-to-1-3b-in-a-year/ says about the picks-and-shovels layer, and how long that interest lasts - How the AI agent wave is actually reshaping hiring, not just headcount Subscribe to Equity on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch , Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780 , Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity , Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul g94iCRgpQ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X https://twitter.com/EquityPod and Threads https://www.threads.net/@equitypod , at @EquityPod.