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AI doesn't replace white collar work

marble.onl

11–20 of 110 posts

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#11
Just to throw out the counterargument here.

The way AI replaces work is in that there is an enormous ROI to work with fewer (and smarter) people. Those social interactions are a big part of work, but they are only very rarely "the work", and they cost time. In the cases that they are required; they seem to cluster and the ROI of fewer social synchronization problems increases even more.

But that might all be wrong. I'm not confident enough to say where we'll land. I also see its possible demand will go up faster because of/and enabled by the increase in supply, and the social aspect is "the real work" to be done.

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#12
The author talks about jobs requiring a human element but its not always true. A job always requires you to show your task one level higher - to the manager or whoever requires it.

For example UI design can be replaced by AI. Unless UI or UX design people were bringing something like _taste_ instead of simply mechanically operating figma - they are not keeping their jobs.

I genuinely don't need to learn SQL ever in my life. I just don't need it for dashboards or analytics use. A person whose main job was to translate requirements to SQL into a dashboard and nothing else would not keep their job anymore. The person to whom they were providing the analysis to could just perform the analysis themselves using AI.

I do think that most jobs would change dramatically but for sure some of them would be eliminated completely.

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As with any tech revolution, jobs don’t go away in total but the types of jobs do. There aren’t a lot of buggy whip manufacturers any more. Professionals photography has taken a sharp decline. Certain kinds of white collar work are a dead end now.

I think progessional photography is so wide as a definition that makes no sense. Product photography could be somehow replaced with AI, maybe, but not journalist photography at all. In fact, journalism photography is more importnat than ever with AI now.

There is a lot less of having the picture-taking-man come to take a picture for $$

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#14

Just to throw out the counterargument here. The way AI replaces work is in that there is an enormous ROI to work with fewer (and smarter) people. Those social interactions are a big part of work, but they are only very rarely "the work", and they cost time. In the cases that they are required; they seem to cluster and the ROI of fewer social synchronization problems increases even more. But that might all be wrong. I…

agreed with that take it is not direct replacement, at present, but rather job market shrinkage in sectors where AI can get more work done

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#16

I said on a different thread, everyone right now is focused on productivity gains, AI making us faster. We are only one major incident away from this trend reversing. Now that we have AI, regulation is less burdensome. More testing requirements, more certification requirements, more security requirements, more accessibility requirements. Everyone keeps their jobs; the bar goes up. Whenever an industry gets better too…

As with any tech revolution, jobs don’t go away in total but the types of jobs do. There aren’t a lot of buggy whip manufacturers any more. Professionals photography has taken a sharp decline. Certain kinds of white collar work are a dead end now.

[flagged]

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#17

The author talks about jobs requiring a human element but its not always true. A job always requires you to show your task one level higher - to the manager or whoever requires it. For example UI design can be replaced by AI. Unless UI or UX design people were bringing something like _taste_ instead of simply mechanically operating figma - they are not keeping their jobs. I genuinely don't need to learn SQL ever in m…

SQL is so simple “needing to learn” it is a bit like needing learning to tie your shoes. Not really any challenge worth mentioning.

Re: AI doesn't replace white collar work

#20

The author talks about jobs requiring a human element but its not always true. A job always requires you to show your task one level higher - to the manager or whoever requires it. For example UI design can be replaced by AI. Unless UI or UX design people were bringing something like _taste_ instead of simply mechanically operating figma - they are not keeping their jobs. I genuinely don't need to learn SQL ever in m…

SQL is so simple “needing to learn” it is a bit like needing learning to tie your shoes. Not really any challenge worth mentioning.

i don't know if this is true or whether people believe this. if you ask other people, they would tell you that sql is a very important skill to learn. i call bs though, like you.

sql is a common interview question, like joining and transformation etc. if its so simple maybe they shouldn't be asking this.

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