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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

#391

Post by bombcar »

raverbashing wrote: post #118
canucker2016 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus there are some customers who misscan stuff to pay less (they buy a lot of "bananas"). also the discretionary purchases that occurred while waiting in line disappear - no gum/chocolate bar or celebrity/gossip magazine sales

The discretionary purchases still exist as the line to the self-checkouts go thought shelves with check-out merchandise

You used to be standing around bored watching the cashier swipe items, now you're busy swiping items yourself; I suspect the number of gum purchases drop on the self-checkout line (but the longer winding path may grab a few more drinks, but only if it's backed up).

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

#392

Post by asdf6677 »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #297
asdf6677 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe da…

Not much is stopping you from living in a log cabin in the woods.

The government will reclaim the land unless I pay for it with money I make from the system. It’s not possible to opt out anymore. They stole the land too but my guns are smaller.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/matthew-clarke-youtube-...

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

#393

Post by bombcar »

barbazoo wrote: post #120
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…

I don't like self checkout because sometimes I'm clumsy and forget to scan an item or two, oopsie.

My wife scanned an item, used Apple Pay, the phone dinged, but the stupid self checkout was still bitching about something, so the payment never actually cleared.

And she didn't notice and walked out.

I came back a few days later and it took me nearly half an hour to explain that I wanted to pay for something without buying it. Finally a manager figured it out heh.

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

#394

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

smeej wrote: post #367
version_five wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Communication preference is one thing. But what a lot of modern "online" support is really about is preventing people from getting support and forcing them into a dark pattern doing what the company wants and not what they want. If I could unsubscribe, deal with billing errors, resolve complaints, etc online I'd love it. But most support systems try and trap you in some Kafkaesque faq hell that never lets you get nea…

It's ironic, but at the company where I provide support (50-ish employees), one of the most common things I have to tell people is that they actually have to sign in and cancel their memberships themselves. They just fire off an email rather that investing even four seconds into typing the same message into the Support Center or just looking at their Account page and doing it themselves.

> They just fire off an email rather that investing even four seconds into typing the same message into the Support Center or just looking at their Account page and doing it themselves.

Can you really blame them? So many of us have gotten used to companies doing everything they can to make unsubscribing as difficult as possible, I'm not surprised their first instinct is to email.

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

#395

Post by vunderba »

nverno wrote: post #276
vikinghckr wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, enjoyment or happiness is tricky to measure because happiness = reality - expectation. So people in the 1820s might've been "happy" enough because they simply didn't know a better life like today's was a possibility. There's no reason to think they were happier than today's population though. And certainly, you as someone who experienced today's conveniences will not be happy long term if all those were taken a…

I've spent the best years of my life living in the woods and in wall-less huts w/ no water, plumbing or electricity. Imho our modern conveniences don't make life any richer, and in many cases take away the pleasure of things we take for granted. If I had medical problems I would probably feel differently.

Uh huh. What were you wearing? Did you sew your own clothes and grow your own cotton for those clothes? There's a surprising amount of "on the grid" work that afforded you the ability to live "off the grid".

There's also a big difference between living in a part of the world where the woods provide a relatively temperate climate. Try living out in the forest to Papua New Guinea with 100% humidity.

By the way, try to make sure you don't accidentally get bitten by a rabid animal because the cure for rabies wasn't invented until the 1880s.

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

#396

Post by ajsnigrutin »

CharlieDigital wrote: post #316
ajsnigrutin wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One tractor can do the work of tens of people easily, and in the last ~150-200 years, we've gone from a vast majority of people producing food to a tiny minority, while the rest can be social media managers and feng-shui specialist. One excell spreadsheet can do the work of a 100+ paper-based accountants, and that's even before a database and automation. We could've stopped at tractors, lived the same lifestyle as be…

Key difference: productivity gains in agriculture made food not only more plentiful, but also cheaper. We can say the same for the steam engine and transportation. It made it cheaper to move goods and people. Question is whether advancements in AI translate to making some fundamental goods or services cheaper and more accessible.

And gains in computing made computers cheaper. An esp32 which is way way more powerful than desktop machines ~30-40 years ago costs $4, you can buy a full laptop for ~150eur, or a smartphone for even less. Yes, of course AI will make stuff cheaper and more accessible, but you'll want more and more of that stuff. Just count the number of "computers" in your home now, and think what else will become "smart" in the future.

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

#397

Post by bombcar »

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…

You used to be dealing with someone who did everything because they had to, and so they had leeway and power.

Now you have to get two or three tiers up before you can find someone who has more access than the customer does via their online account.

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

#398

Post by bombcar »

sokoloff wrote: post #74
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?

You used to be able to go into elevators and tell the attendant what floor you were going to, or have the ice delivery service figure out how much you needed for the next day as well. The current situation is a significant improvement, IMO.

There are times when missing an attendant is felt; they could hold the elevator for you, see you running up, etc.

Much of that still exists (most elevators have a "move in/move out" mode that is never turned on, for example) or can be obtained via the fire lockout key, but overall the service is a bit lower.

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

#399

Post by ghaff »

mupuff1234 wrote: post #371
bobthepanda wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, places will ignore that it doesn't work for everything, cut off any sort of physical call centers, and then people just end up fed up with their services. I absolutely hate places aggressively adopting chatbots and phone bots.

Perhaps, but that's also true with physical call centers, some of them are helpful and some are hell. Hopefully the costumers will rewards companies with better customer service. A good company will provide a good chat bot that will make it immediately clear when it can help and when it can't, with a clear and simple way to contact a human if needed.

>Hopefully the costumers will rewards companies with better customer service.

That assumes people will recognize those companies and pay a premium for their services.

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

#400

Post by AussieWog93 »

sharts wrote: post #340

Anyone that has ever interacted with a customer service chat bot knows this is pretty stupid. I’m not sure why people (esp. those in the tech community) think we have evolved the technology in any meaningful enough way to replace people yet. How do we know this? Those same people would be against AI chatbots replacing their children’s teachers.

I'm assuming that you're looking at it from the point of view of someone who only contacts tech support when human intervention is actually required.

And honestly, probably 90% of people are like this.

In terms of who actually takes up the majority of the support reps' time, however, is the 10% of people who are bored, lonely, genuinely mentally handicapped, whingers, and people who get really angry about some bizarre inane detail.

I'd honestly love it if companies weren't so allergic to offering good, paid support or just dropping troublesome customers so that the rest of us could get through quickly.

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