If you work with AI, it's on you to refuse those jobs.
Many of us have built software that at some point has eliminated roles. It's turtles all the way down.
Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
21–30 of 563 posts
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? Have you ever sat in a customer service chat with someone who wasn't very helpful and very slow sat the same time? There were probably handling several other chats at the same time. Why shouldn't we replace those interactions with an AI that is fast and infinitely patient and friendly? I am willing to be convinced otherwise, but I don't see how fighting technological progress that is net positive for almost ever…
Because up to this point my experience with automated systems in banks, phone companies and web services companies has been awful even for trivial requests. Until shit improves, I will be bashing on those and prefer companies that allow me to get human interaction asap.
Different people different experiences I guess.
I used to work in the industry and my experience had been that companies who don't care about customer service will have shitty customer service, bots or not. The opposite is true as well.
I have seen simple request bounce between up to 15 customer service reps without the end user getting what they wanted. On the contrary I think some of the best customer service is when there is no need for customer service at all.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#23It's nothing new - Outlook / Exchange and counterparts replaced secretaries. Intelligent IDES let me do the job of many. The list goes on. The rate of replacement may be great or greatly exaggerated. Taxing profits is the key. I'm not holding my breath.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#24If you work with AI, it's on you to refuse those jobs.
No it's not. Everyone has obligations. You cannot un-invent this stuff. That's like trying to stop air planes, rockets, photography, combustion engine, calculators, the personal pc, etc. It's the next phase of technology and it will be developed regardless if you like it or not. It's here to stay and thinking otherwise does everyone a disservice. We should be trying to figure out how to leverage this and ride the nex…
Wait, you actually think that AI will improve any of this?
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#25The enshittification will continue until morale improves.
What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Morale is down because of the enshittification.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#26>The employee’s Twitter thread also raised concerns about the well-being of Shopify’s workforce. Since the layoffs, remaining staff members have reportedly faced increased workloads without proportional compensation or benefits, leading to burnout, anxiety, and stress leave.
Companies who outsource customer support to cheap subsidiaries or bots have no respect for either their customers or their workers, both low and high paid, who will inevitably have to fix and respond to the crap coming their way. For me it has become the most important factor in not choosing to buy anything from a business. It is the canary in the coal mine for future degrading quality.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#27There's been a pretty steady trend towards automation, chatbots, self-service, etc. replacing getting an empowered human on the line. Given labor costs and labor shortages, expect even more. Had an airline thing that the website (and app) wouldn't let me complete online. Spent ages on hold but then was able to get hold of their premium account number and was fixed right away. (Of course, would actually have preferred…
Same goes for almost all grocery shops here - Publix, Kroger, target etc replacing checkout with self-checkout kiosks completely.
I absolute hate using self-checkout for non-packaged groceries items. Especially if I have lots of stuff. Freaking "unintended item in baggage area".
Not to mention, I feel like Publix etc in particular employed lots of folks with disability. It warmed my heart to talk to them.
I don't know what humanity plans is. Even if we pay folks free money, they still loose on social interactions.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
No it's not. Everyone has obligations. You cannot un-invent this stuff. That's like trying to stop air planes, rockets, photography, combustion engine, calculators, the personal pc, etc. It's the next phase of technology and it will be developed regardless if you like it or not. It's here to stay and thinking otherwise does everyone a disservice. We should be trying to figure out how to leverage this and ride the nex…
Wait, you actually think that AI will improve any of this?
Have you been using ChatGPT to solve work problems? I have. It's amazing. This technology can do amazing things and companies should be using it to solve problems. Of course I think it can improve things. Think about what happens when companies start to build corporate LLM's trained on their docs, code, knowledge base, support tickets, etc. You're going to have super human support. Sure, this might assist the current staff but they are going to be so much better equipped to solve problems.
Imagine for a second, that there is actually a LLM agent that can not only understand what you want but actually do things too. Like, why not have these systems reset passwords, check on the status of a refund, update a mailing address, change billing info, cancel your account, email me some documents, etc. This frees up people to actually work on more important things. The hardest part of all this pre-ChatGPT was understanding fully what the person wanted. That's petty much solved now.
I think we're headed to a future where you'll actually want an LLM agent vs a human in that they will know everything and can solve your issue in seconds. It's like when you win the lottery and get the support person who's been at the company 15 years and knows everything in and out. That's what these LLM's can be.
Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#29There's been a pretty steady trend towards automation, chatbots, self-service, etc. replacing getting an empowered human on the line. Given labor costs and labor shortages, expect even more. Had an airline thing that the website (and app) wouldn't let me complete online. Spent ages on hold but then was able to get hold of their premium account number and was fixed right away. (Of course, would actually have preferred…
FYI, I am actively avoiding any service that makes it hard for me to talk to a human. I don’t think I am the only one.
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Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI
#30I wonder if all company owners just fire everyone and replace them with AI, who will pay for their products and services?