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AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

chatterhead.bearblog.dev

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Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#221

Post by spaniard89277 »

jesuscript wrote: post #191
snowwrestler wrote: post #39

What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…

How’s AI going to do that better than a fellow human? It will create metrics that will formalize a new paradigm. You know that arbitrary number in your bank account that defines you, that number on your report card, that rating on an Amazon review, that number that’s defining global inflation, that metric that measures interest rate, that number of hours you work … The fucking lines of code, number of commits, points…

This. I wonder if people will react to this the same they do when human-made metrics don't make any sense.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#222

Post by SergeAx »

snowwrestler wrote: post #39

What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…

You are right and this is bad news, because AI middle management is still inevitable. Currenlty, AI more or less manages taxi drivers in different places around the world, also telesupport personnel and other positions like those. Every time it degrades to orwellian level of sick incentives and pure exploitation. And things will get worse, because it allows to maximize profits.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#223

Post by AndyPa32 »

I bought a kitchen table at Amazon. Now the recommendation engine recommends more kitchen tables and that is going on for half a year now. As long as that is the state of the art, I am not afraid that AI will replace my job, which requires some out of the box thinking.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#224

Post by AussieWog93 »

jesuscript wrote: post #191
snowwrestler wrote: post #39

What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…

How’s AI going to do that better than a fellow human? It will create metrics that will formalize a new paradigm. You know that arbitrary number in your bank account that defines you, that number on your report card, that rating on an Amazon review, that number that’s defining global inflation, that metric that measures interest rate, that number of hours you work … The fucking lines of code, number of commits, points…

>“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM”

On the flip side, the companies that embodied this ethos were disrupted out of existence over the course of decades, to the point where IBM ran out of customers and sold off their declining hardware business.

Any damage this does in the short-term will self correct in 30 years.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#225

Post by mclightning »

AndyPa32 wrote: post #223

I bought a kitchen table at Amazon. Now the recommendation engine recommends more kitchen tables and that is going on for half a year now. As long as that is the state of the art, I am not afraid that AI will replace my job, which requires some out of the box thinking.

I am experiencing the same across the board. I buy something, and X platform starts showing me ads about the very thing I already bought.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#226

Post by rocqua »

snowwrestler wrote: post #39

What does chess have in common with retail middle management? As someone who has managed a retail store and played chess, I can confidently answer: nothing. Remember when Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy? And then IBM saturated the airwaves with ads about how Watson was going to revolutionize industries like energy and health care? Notice how we don’t see those ads anymore? It’s because winning Jeopardy has nothi…

Have an AI optimize schedules and 'general utility'. Then build a second AI that explains why the previous outcome was best.

If you have results that actually are better scheduling than done by a human, with plausible explanations that most people affected agree with, you might be able to replace managers.

What scares me, is that we would be training the second AI to convince us to believe it, rather than training it to tell the truth.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#227

Post by dgudkov »

AndyPa32 wrote: post #223

I bought a kitchen table at Amazon. Now the recommendation engine recommends more kitchen tables and that is going on for half a year now. As long as that is the state of the art, I am not afraid that AI will replace my job, which requires some out of the box thinking.

Exactly my sentiment. AI in most cases is too dumb. At best it creates an illusion of doing something useful.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#228

Post by lm28469 »

> Ai will replace _insert job_

So the same thing as since the 60s when politicians and technocrats promised automation would allow a 3 days / 15 hours workweek but instead of doing that it pushed people in shittier and shittier jobs, with longer hours, and increased the retirement age ?

Can't wait for that !

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#229

Post by tareqak »

alvis wrote: post #164
paganel wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The more robotic your message sound, the more people are compelled to comply. Thankfully that is not the case where I live (somewhere in Europe), but I can see what you describe becoming true in a very dystopic future. Does that AI also handle situations like “boss, would you be so kind to borrow me some money for 2, 3 days? Until the salary comes, that is, cause me and my SO are totally out of it”? Cause some of m…

I can imagine it can be a fintech opportunity. An AI that automatically performs a credit check behind the scene and lend you the money in advance, probably money in your account in seconds. It's not too hard actually.

I can imagine something a lot simpler: ask employees the cadence at which they want to be paid out (daily, weekly, bimonthly, monthly) as allowed by law and pay them that way.

Yes, more bank transactions will cost the business more. That might be something the employee will have to pay for, or it might be something that governments require businesses to eat the cost on.

Re: AI will replace middle management before robots replace hourly workers

#230

Post by rocqua »

LeonM wrote: post #219

I worked for a large grocery store chain between 2004 and 2010, there the AI had already taken over. Though we didn't call it an AI, just 'the system'. The system was able to procure goods with stunning accuracy. Sometimes it even surprised us. For example: we'd receive a much higher number of BBQ meat than typical, only to realise it was going to be amazing weather the coming days. The system was also making schedul…

That sounds like truly valuable ERP, and largely devoid of AI.
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