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AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

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Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#361

Post by danny_codes »

darth_avocado wrote: post #14
goalieca wrote: post #6

I can't read the article but that won't stop me from commenting.. This year alone something like 400B was spent on investing in chips, datacenters, electricity buildouts. That's 400B that could have otherwise been invested in people. While i don't doubt that people will find a few solid business cases for LLMs, i am on team-bubble. I don't think this investment will add 400B worth of value and I very much doubt that…

Bah, all of that is still employing people. Companies have completed almost $1T of stock buybacks this year. Since 2018, with the exception of 2020, that number has been between $800B and $1T every single year. And that number has been more than $500B since the 2008 recession. AI spend is bad but it’s not even close to how much stock buybacks have ruined the employee wages and employment prospects.

It’s mildly infuriating that we keep cutting corporate tax rates and using debt to finance public spending instead. That trillion dollars of buybacks would balance the budget with likely minimal impact on GDP (I mean clearly these companies don’t need the money).

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#362

Post by screenoridesagb »

time0ut wrote: post #88
Glyptodon wrote: post #20

As a recently laid of senior engineer, to the extent that my job was replaced, it was replaced with offshore junior devs who'd already been working with the company for over year with a pretty rough level of productivity by man-hour, though maybe taking 3x the time to get things done is worth it if they're cheap enough. Which is to say I see my layoff as as cost cutting backed by a premise that there is no value in r…

My company has been intentionally causing attrition in the US by moving to effectively a 996 style schedule. As people quit, their positions are moved to the India office. It is not an officially communicated policy. I have just surmised this based on private conversations with the executives and what is actually happening.

[dead]

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#363

Post by a24j »

MangoToupe wrote: post #45
a24j wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/02/nx-s1-5591302/ghost-jobs-are-...

I don't see the relation. A "ghost job posting" is not evidence of recent graduates failing to meet the requirements of the past; it is a job posting an employer has no intention of filling to begin with.

You said:

> Surely this would be indicated by a glut of unfilled job postings.

I posted a link about Ghost jobs. Then, you said:

>[...]it is a job posting an employer has no intention of filling to begin with.

GP' comment speaks to recent graduates feeling less engaged. Whether it's because they fail to meet the requirements, or the requirements are literally fake doesn't matter. AI isn't used simply to cheat on coursework, but also to erect a de facto glass ceiling viz fake jobs with fake requirements, engagement suffers.

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#364

Post by screenoridesagb »

jlouis wrote: post #328
czhu12 wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

its kind of hard to imagine that FAANG employees in india and philippines get paid as much as the west when London is a 30-50% cut from the Bay Area. Just perusing on google for roles at google in hyderabad, I think its significantly lower than the US.

Talent eventually get paid their value. Doesn't matter where they live. If you have a brain, you rank up. Quickly.

[dead]

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#365

Post by 9rx »

evantbyrne wrote: post #54
alephnerd wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GCCs are expanding in Canada, Ireland, Poland, Czechia, and Costa Rica as well. Indians are more visible, but salary expections have gotten extremely out of whack in the US, and extended WFH during COVID proved to most boards that companies can continue to operate when entire teams are communicating async. If a large portion of interns and NCGs in the US are essentially expecting $45-70/hr salaries, it just isn't sus…

I was making $50/hour fresh out of college back in 2014. And I worked remotely. $45/hour today is not great given the cost of living.

> I was making $50/hour fresh out of college back in 2014. And I worked remotely.

Same for me, except out of high school, and a decade earlier.

That's the sordid tale of the industry. Outside of a handful of FAANG high flyers, pay, in real dollars, has been very steadily decreasing over many decades. But it took high inflation for us to notice.

Now we're in a difficult spot because we feel we need to make more to make up for the considerably higher cost of living, but there is no market willing to pay more — and never was.

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#366

Post by downrightmike »

klysm wrote: post #325
ultra_nick wrote: post #320

AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending isn't either. It's outsourcing and can be easily confirmed by cross-referencing H1B approval rates with layoffs. If you've been outsourced, ask your representative to support the HIRE Act: - Creates a 25% tax on outsourcing payments - Creates a “Domestic Workforce Fund” for apprenticeships/workforce development. - Prohibits companies from deducting outsourcing payments.

How do you prevent thin wrapper organizations that just contract out “services”?

You don't, you get turtles all the way down the same way they avoid taxes.

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#367

Post by system2 »

pjmlp wrote: post #93

I can tell that editors doing CMS translations, marketing images have certainly been replaced. Likewise many tasks I used to do with Java, .NET, Node.js, have been replaced by low code/no code tools with agentic orchestration. Thinking that AI isn't replacing jobs is wishful thinking.

Those are tools, not jobs.

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#368

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

whoknowsidont wrote: post #327
StackRanker3000 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think anyone is arguing that the basic idea of offshoring was invented after the COVID pandemic… But rather that workplaces and workforces geared towards remote working has made it more feasible and accelerated the process

>But rather that workplaces and workforces geared towards remote working has made it more feasible and accelerated the process By what metrics?

Is it really hard to understand that the infrastructure for remote work, which I think everyone would agree got a major upgrade during the pandemic, would also make it much easier for companies to outsource software dev work?

Pre-2015 or so, yes, of course there was outsourcing, but it was honestly a major PITA in most cases. Most communication was done in conference calls, very little group video communication, lots of async chats, etc.. Any type of work where you needed a fairly frequent black-and-forth with various team members was rarely outsourced - the type of work that was outsourced was the type that was more likely to have static requirements.

But now, though, there is basically no difference working with a colleague who's working from home in the same city vs. working from home thousands of miles away (as long as there is good timezones overlap). And that is a change that only happened around the beginning of the pandemic, and I've personally seen companies much more willing to outsource because of it, and they're outsourcing a much wider type of work (e.g. brand new dev work that is frequently updated based on usage metrics) than they would in the past.

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#369

Post by krackers »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #147
J_Shelby_J wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If software engineering is not special and can be done by anyone, so can any other role in a business. So it follows that all American roles will be offshored eventually, including ownership of the company itself - or American businesses will be universally out competed.

> If software engineering is not special and can be done by anyone, so can any other role in a business. Indeed, however other business roles have a significant physical presence or face to face component. Sales & marketing, legal, HR, and significant parts of operations and admin have physical presence requirements in most businesses. I would expect finance/accounting to be vulnerable to offshoring, though.

>finance/accounting to be vulnerable

Aren't there certifications and stuff? I'd think that from a regulatory and legal compliance perspective it'd be better to have Americans handling the books. Say someone turns out to be cooking the books, if that person is halfway across the world good luck prosecuting them (unless your company is wealthy enough to the point where you can mobilize law enforcement to do your bidding)

Re: AI isn't replacing jobs. AI spending is

#370

Post by downrightmike »

silisili wrote: post #279
EricDeb wrote: post #231

American devs should support the hire act bill

25% isn't nearly high enough. Seems more like a government money grab than an effective tool.

Just a shake down. "Be a shame if your store windows were to break" Or like the Tylenol thing being a setup for hostile takeover
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