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Generative AI and The Future of Work

maestroai.substack.com

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Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#71

Post by zabzonk »

oceanplexian wrote: post #70
xenonite wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is similar to correcting subpar human results: Rather than meticulously correcting the works of a subpar programmer it is much more efficient to let a proficient developer produce the code. Or even better, engage a 10x developer.

Most problems don’t require efficient code. If an inefficient programmer can solve a real world business problem in a fraction of the time, but it requires slightly more computing resources, I’d still pay for it. Efficiency can be measured in a lot of dimensions and often times spending time and money writing optimized code is inefficient as well.

they do require correct code

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#72

Post by shishy »

lmarcos wrote: post #49
mlfia wrote: post #46

GPT3 has shown how ML can be trained on multiple unstructured data sources to produce structured information on demand. Iterate a few more versions from here, so that the models are stronger at producing the correct structured data, and the impact on every office job will be profound. I.e. instead of training a generative model on text from the internet, train it on every single excel file, sql database, word documen…

Nah. When AI is able to do all what you have said, requirements will just get harder and humans will still have to put hours to make something done. Just like 30 years ago it wasn't feasible to implement streaming music over the internet in a weekend, and now any teenager can do so by just 'npm install'ing... AI will only open the door to even more complex problems to solve.

Both of those things can be true... it's not just one or the other. There are plenty of jobs right now that are more menial tasks which will definitely be replaced by this, and I feel for those older folks in those positions because they'll most likely lose their jobs / be impacted by this.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#73

Post by linkjuice4all »

k__ wrote: post #62
samvher wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offense but this approach worries me - it seems like a novel mechanism to (perhaps inadvertently) generate and spread false information. It takes a lot of fact checking to make sure everything is right, and if you do the research yourself that's a natural part of the process. It seems way too easy to minimize that effort in a process like this. I was already worried about ChatGPT-like systems generating mass-produ…

It's not as bad as it sounds. And to be honest, I'm happy that this thing can't yet replace my job. But yeah, it helps for more mainstream stuff to get started.

So how do you know if it's lying to you if you don't do the research?

In the short-term I'm certain that you have the background knowledge to detect when generated content is not quite correct - but going forward as your own personal knowledge atrophies (since you're letting AI do your research) - will you still be able to make sure it's not making everything up?

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#74

Post by k__ »

linkjuice4all wrote: post #73
k__ wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not as bad as it sounds. And to be honest, I'm happy that this thing can't yet replace my job. But yeah, it helps for more mainstream stuff to get started.

So how do you know if it's lying to you if you don't do the research? In the short-term I'm certain that you have the background knowledge to detect when generated content is not quite correct - but going forward as your own personal knowledge atrophies (since you're letting AI do your research) - will you still be able to make sure it's not making everything up?

Good question!

I'm not sure.

I hope I'm curious enough that my knowledge doesn't atrophy and that I care more about the quality of my work than it might sound when I talk about it on HN.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#75

Post by impalallama »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #52
impalallama wrote: post #20

ChatGPT help me solve a refactoring bug today. I had spent hours messing around trying to figure out what the issue was until I realized, via asking ChatGPT, that I had misunderstood a piece of the code and the docs. It was able to answer and provide examples (until it had error and crashed) in a way a senior engineer might have been able to. The funny thing is I had tried just pasting in code and saying "find the bu…

Would you mind noting what language you were working in?

It was a problem with my gitlab-ci config but I wasted a lot of time wondering if the problem was the scripting portion.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#76

Post by carapace »

goatlover wrote: post #56
henry_bone wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From Star Trek: First Contact: "When you build a machine to do a man's job, you take something away from the man." You surrendered the need to think to the machine. You are lesser for it. I don't think these AIs are just removing drudgery, like, say, a calculator. They actually do the work. Or more correctly, they produce something that will pass for the work. Wholesale embracing of this sort of technology is bad for…

That’s the message of Frank Herbert in the Dune universe regarding machines. They’re useful up until you start letting them do the thinking for you. Which leads to laziness, stagnation and control by an elite. So did reliance on spice for that matter.

> Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

- - - -

This is good and well for existing minds, but I think a lot of people will let these machines raise their children and that might cripple them. Like if you let your kids use a wheelchair instead of learning to walk? It's an imperfect metaphor.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#77

Post by optimalsolver »

henry_bone wrote: post #34
impalallama wrote: post #20

ChatGPT help me solve a refactoring bug today. I had spent hours messing around trying to figure out what the issue was until I realized, via asking ChatGPT, that I had misunderstood a piece of the code and the docs. It was able to answer and provide examples (until it had error and crashed) in a way a senior engineer might have been able to. The funny thing is I had tried just pasting in code and saying "find the bu…

From Star Trek: First Contact: "When you build a machine to do a man's job, you take something away from the man." You surrendered the need to think to the machine. You are lesser for it. I don't think these AIs are just removing drudgery, like, say, a calculator. They actually do the work. Or more correctly, they produce something that will pass for the work. Wholesale embracing of this sort of technology is bad for…

I'm pretty sure that quote is from Star Trek: Insurrection.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#78

Post by jhbadger »

shishy wrote: post #72
lmarcos wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. When AI is able to do all what you have said, requirements will just get harder and humans will still have to put hours to make something done. Just like 30 years ago it wasn't feasible to implement streaming music over the internet in a weekend, and now any teenager can do so by just 'npm install'ing... AI will only open the door to even more complex problems to solve.

Both of those things can be true... it's not just one or the other. There are plenty of jobs right now that are more menial tasks which will definitely be replaced by this, and I feel for those older folks in those positions because they'll most likely lose their jobs / be impacted by this.

Exactly. People forget that there used to be (up to about thirty years ago) a large number of people employed as "file clerks". Their job was to file and retrieve on demand paper documents in filing cabinets. When relational databases became practical, this information was stored and retrieved electronically and the entire job of "file clerk" was made obsolete.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#79

Post by wprl »

ccozan wrote: post #18
aero142 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been asking friends in non-programming engineering fields how ChatGPT does in their area of expertise, and I believe programming is the area that ChatGPT is the most accurate. Finding solution to general engineering problems seems blatantly wrong in almost all cases, whereas in programming, it seems to be able to generate mostly correct code for simple, boiler-plate like tasks.

yes, but why? Why is GPT so much better at programming than other tasks? can it be that programming itself can be so easily predicted in a generative way, while others require more ingenuity and real world model to be solved? In this case I would totally offload programming to a GPT /LLM AI, while my job is simply to specify largely the business case.

As Chomsky points out, the AIs understand syntax not semantics. Code is all (or almost all) syntax whereas human language has both syntax and meaning. Meaning is not something ChatGPT understands.

Re: Generative AI and The Future of Work

#80

Post by oneoff786 »

teddyh wrote: post #32
impalallama wrote: post #20

ChatGPT help me solve a refactoring bug today. I had spent hours messing around trying to figure out what the issue was until I realized, via asking ChatGPT, that I had misunderstood a piece of the code and the docs. It was able to answer and provide examples (until it had error and crashed) in a way a senior engineer might have been able to. The funny thing is I had tried just pasting in code and saying "find the bu…

Sounds a lot like “rubber duck” debugging.

If you’re willing to overlook the small detail that it is the duck explaining to you how your code works rather than you explaining to the duck then sure
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