[ledauphin]

the one does actually sound worse because... it's actually worse. it clarifies that the companies themselves were playing games with people's livelihoods because of the potential for profit.

whereas "AI" is intuitively an external force; it's much harder to assign blame to company leadership.

[daxfohl]

I'd read the first as adjusting to market demand, not playing with people's lives. If if were construed as playing with lives, that could apply to basically any investment.

[tilne]

Agreed. You could make the case that employment in general is playing with someone’s life.