Many firms are now slashing their number of new hires.
Yes. This sucks.
The main cause of this is artificial intelligence
Unlikely.
The main cause for a chill in hiring tends to be uncertainty about the future. And we know that folks are feeling high uncertainty about the future, right now. (Gestures broadly at current headlines in general and "Not The Onion", in particular.)
Historically, uncertainty about the future is particularly high when the people have low confidence that existing and new laws will be applied in a predictable manner.
I'll leave exactly what changed on that front as a thought exercise.
AI is interesting, but it is not the primary cause of the chill in hiring new graduates.