Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AI for developers and Google Workspace

blog.google

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 249 posts

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#211

Post by babyshake »

IMTDb wrote: post #58
Buttons840 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The middle manager thinks, "the time and effort I spend on my job can be automated, yay!", never considering the second order effects.

And the good middle manager (yes, they exist ! and yes, they are useful !) thinks "the not very useful part of my job can be automated, yay more time for the actually interesting/useful thing !"

Realistically, the middle manager thinks, "the part of my job where it looks like I'm doing something can be automated, yay more time for 3-4 day weekends!"

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#212

Post by babyshake »

reaperducer wrote: post #44
Buttons840 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The middle manager thinks, "the time and effort I spend on my job can be automated, yay!", never considering the second order effects.

The middle manager thinks, "the time and effort I spend on my job can be automated, yay!", never considering the second order effects. This is why when a cashier at the supermarket tells me that instead of waiting in line I can use the self check-out lanes, I tell her "I don't want to help a robot take away your job." Usually they don't understand. But sometimes you can see them start to think about what's happening.

I do want a robot to take their job. I also want us to ensure that everyone does have a fulfilling, non-robotic job available to them. I think those cashiers would happier, say, painting a mural on the wall of the grocery store.

Of course, this gets into UBI territory and making sure that as a society we are not just replacing menial jobs to then abandon the people who would have had those jobs.

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#213

Post by keraf »

jon-wood wrote: post #4

> So if you’re a manager onboarding a new employee, Workspace saves you the time and effort involved in writing that first welcome email. If you really can't be bothered to write the welcome email maybe just don't, rather than throwing some ML generated drivel as the first impression a new hire gets of your management. The direction this is going in is so focused on automating away the hassle of email, with the end s…

It will probably save you time too with layoff emails trained using Google's internal data.

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#214

Post by dymk »

melling wrote: post #70
neap24 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some were googling, for sure. But the best ones were not.

Down the rabbit hole with that… So, the best ones will still write their own and the others will save time. And by definition, most people aren’t the best. So, we all agree the automation is welcome?

The best ones know when to put in effort to show they care for another human being, and know when to automate a task where that doesn't matter. Welcoming somebody to a new job is the former.

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#215

Post by dymk »

paganel wrote: post #53
phphphphp wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cashier would rather you leave them in peace than hit them with the same tiresome self-congratulatory remark they hear day in day out. Please use the self checkouts instead.

Please don't use the checkout, why should corporations worth billions and tens of billions (I guess that's what Walmart is worth) get to outsource some of their work onto their clients?

I can do self-checkout about 5x faster than the clerk can

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#216

Post by magicink81 »

bpicolo wrote: post #177
elicash wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we not pretend people weren't already googling sample emails for this? It's just more efficient now to grab the same starter email that you then customize. Admittedly, google shouldn't be pretending otherwise, either. But what they also did was make it so you can get the starter email without having to see their ads. Edited to add: I think a better argument on this could he made about the "draft a thank you note…

I don't really want to read (or "write") a bunch of impersonal junk written by AI. Can we skip this phase of technology? Edit: Maybe this will inspire the next wave of tech burnouts turned mushroom farmers

Whatever gets us to successive waves "tech burnouts turned mushroom farmers" is fine by me!

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#217

Post by rayusher »

paganel wrote: post #53
phphphphp wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cashier would rather you leave them in peace than hit them with the same tiresome self-congratulatory remark they hear day in day out. Please use the self checkouts instead.

Please don't use the checkout, why should corporations worth billions and tens of billions (I guess that's what Walmart is worth) get to outsource some of their work onto their clients?

I saw on tiktok (yeah I know) where a lawyer says they never use it because you can be liable for stealing for anything you forgot scan. I never use it cause occasionally the cashier will let you know that there is a coupon for something you are purchasing.

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#218

Post by Sol- »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #106
topicseed wrote: post #12

This video published just now is incredible — https://youtu.be/6DaJVZBXETE Not sure though if it's mostly stuff that's being beta tested as we speak, or stuff that's not even built at all as of yet.

My view of the future has completely collapsed over the last 6mos-1year. I desperately don't want to live in a world where everything about everyone is fake and augmented. Where everything you look at and interact with is just AI generated or AI controlled. I can't see how AI isn't going to make the problem of falling social interaction 1000x worse.

I can relate. Maybe the Amish got a point after all!

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#219

Post by yunohn »

I cannot stand the prosaic, repetitive, boringly formal nature of GPT/etc output. I also am tired of the randomly messy-surreal, illogical images generated by DallE/etc output.

HR/PR approved corporate communications are already crappy. From a practical viewpoint, I don’t want to wade through pages of bullshit boilerplate and illogical images. The future is bleak and boring…

Re: AI for developers and Google Workspace

#220

Post by [deleted] »

rch wrote: post #149
Buttons840 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video is very focused on first order effects. A middle manager automates all their work by writing a few sentences; they produce a "brief" by giving a one sentence input to the AI, doubtless imagining that other humans will carefully read their brief, quietly nodding to themselves and considering every sentence, with passing thoughts about how competent the middle manager is. In truth, the middle manager will soo…

> For a brief time they will work The generated 'thank you for your leadership' message was amusing. If it's all fake, then what's the point?

[deleted]
Post reply on HN