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Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

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Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#171

Post by cityofdelusion »

bdangubic wrote: post #119
gnufied wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 kno…

[flagged]

You might as well skip the extra steps and just walk out the store with your cart without paying.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#172

Post by kromem »

rglover wrote: post #131

How I read all headlines like this now: "Shopify just opened themselves up to be less dominate (or non-existent) in the market." The destruction of brands on the horizon is creating a ton of opportunity for new businesses to develop. One's that can only succeed if they reject the religion of "automate all the things with AI" and take a quality/human-first approach to running their business.

Yep.

It isn't going to be in the next 12 or maybe even 24 months, but in the not too distant future any company that made significant downsizing in the early days of AI is going to find out the hard way that they effectively threw away a lot of their lead against competition.

The smart companies right now would be keeping headcount the same, provide their employees with access to AI and training on how to use it effectively to reduce their workload, and then set them towards further specialization with the new freed up workload.

The cost for the productivity that 100 human employees can bring is much harder for a new competitor to match than the cost of 100 AI employees. So if cash flow supports keeping 100 humans on staff, and instead you switch over to AI to try and impress shareholders in the short term, rather than finding ways to maximize the output of the 100 humans for long term growth, you're going to wake up closer to being unseated by companies with less technical and bureaucratic debt (and probably often with some of those same ex employees on staff).

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#173

Post by rolandog »

yreg wrote: post #149
jarjoura wrote: post #134

If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. However, every advancement that has come in the last 100 years that improved efficiency has only meant we're pushed to work more and do more. So I am now expected to do 2x the work. If you're really dreaming for AI that can wipe-out entire classes of decent middle-class jobs in one big swing, don't forge…

The mean quality of life is sky high compared to 100 years ago and it is such thanks to the advancement made.

The mean quality of life can be skewed by outliers. I wonder if there are median quality of life indicators with the box-diagram of Upper and Lower Fence values based on the Inter Quartile Range

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#174

Post by usednet »

jarjoura wrote: post #134

If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. However, every advancement that has come in the last 100 years that improved efficiency has only meant we're pushed to work more and do more. So I am now expected to do 2x the work. If you're really dreaming for AI that can wipe-out entire classes of decent middle-class jobs in one big swing, don't forge…

The logical conclusion that people don’t like to hear is that there will need to be a fundamental restructuring of the economy. AI will, in the not so distant future, eliminate the vast majority of jobs. The choice will then be between a socialized economy or barbarism.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#175

Post by michaelmrose »

vwcx wrote: post #43
carapace wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that's really hard for anything that doesn't involve going to a local store or service. Is that such a bad thing? FWIW it used to be that you could pick up the phone, dial '0', and talk to an operator , a real human being with significant power over the system they operated. When the phone companies got rid of human operators: that was the beginning of the end of ...something?

> significant power over the system they operated that's such a great observation. Nowadays, when emailing support for a company like Ryobi or Breville, the human's response (through a Salesforce queue, no doubt) is always so helpless. They literally have no ability (nor knowledge?) to deviate from the corporate prescribed path and actually solve the problem. Same goes for a large car dealer's service dept. There's j…

I think I've made substantial deviations from what was officially allowed at every job I've spent significant time at to the employers ultimate benefit and with employer support. If it is the right decision for everyone AND your employer wont fire you for doing it then you have the power to do it regardless of what guidelines say.

The guidelines are written in the hopes of achieving ends not as an end in themselves.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#176

Post by alluro2 »

indy wrote: post #91
krainboltgreene wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I built careers on making labour easier, I want the result of that labour to benefit the workers, not the exceptionally short term vision of shareholders. Just because you can't understand why this affects your future doesn't mean it's hollow outrage.

If you think that AI only benefits shareholders then you're the one with exceptional short term vision. Broadening access to AI will massively benefit all humans

In the socioeconomic utopia we'll build in the meantime?

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#177

Post by ThrowawayTestr »

darawk wrote: post #165
almost_usual wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And as the Earth burns away and we choke on the smoke we rejoice as we have our AI entertainment and we can go quietly into the night.

Lol. Nobody is choking on smoke. The earth is fine. Humans may make life slightly more difficult for themselves in the next century or two due to global warming, but those difficulties will be more than offset by advances in technology, even under pessimistic assumptions.

A good portion of NA is literally choked in forest fire smoke.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#178

Post by starik36 »

almost_usual wrote: post #155
yreg wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mean quality of life is sky high compared to 100 years ago and it is such thanks to the advancement made.

And as the Earth burns away and we choke on the smoke we rejoice as we have our AI entertainment and we can go quietly into the night.

I think the air quality is far better today than it was in the 30-40 years ago. I moved to Los Angeles in the late 80s and in the first six months didn't even realize that there were mountains all around us. I just couldn't see them because of the smog. I can see the mountains clearly today.

That's my anecdotal evidence.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#179

Post by boringg »

ChumpGPT wrote: post #139

>These job cuts, according to the employee, were driven not merely by a CEO’s misguided “bet,” but rather a shift towards replacing full-time employees with cheaper contract labor Good Lord, how much cheaper can you get than Canadian labor? They already get paid poorly and earn about 1/2 or less than their US counterparts. I guess the lack of jobs is why they can pay so little, explains why so many Canadians flee to…

I think you need some numbers there. Pretty sure it isnt 50% ;)

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#180

Post by yreg »

digdugdirk wrote: post #152
yreg wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mean quality of life is sky high compared to 100 years ago and it is such thanks to the advancement made.

The mean quality of life is irrelevant if the mode quality of life is only a tenth of that.

The mode quality of life is also sky high compared to 100 years ago. So is the median quality of life.

Mode and median were raised even faster than the average. Humanity managed to uplift a huge fraction of people out of extreme poverty.

In 1820s around 70-80% people lived in extreme poverty

In 1920s it was around 60-70%

In 2020s it's around 10%

source: e.g. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/e20f2f1a-en/index.html?i...

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