If AI thinks so much faster than humans. does it age fater than humans? and in that case, does AI have dementia already?
Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
81–90 of 592 posts
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#82I hope those engineers made Ford pay out the nose.
They did not. I been saying for decades that software devs form a union. It's just so strange any other profession have unions or bodies that protect their job against this sort of practice. if software devs were lawyers then AI would've been banned
You can negotiate your salary even without a union. Also being part of a union doesn't guarantee you won't be laid off because of AI.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#83> Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product. Clearly a lot of careful thought went into their strategy of using AI and firing engineers.
Had a couple of Taurusii back in the day. 100% ended up having a problem where the power steering pump shit the bed because a plastic piece in the pressurized side failed. Paid to repair one, oem pump broke on drive home due to same plastic piece under pressure. My point being, Ford's had shit for brains for decades. Its a fucking wonder any of their vehicles make it out of the parking lot.
Ford invested heavily in reliability in the late 2000s - see e.g. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2012-apr-15-la-fi-bo...
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#84Interestingly, there were no consequences for the execs that made this 'mistake'. There seems to be almost unlimited cover for execs cargo culting on using AI as a pretext for layoffs. If it doesn't implode almost immediately, they get massive bonuses, if it blows up in their face, oh well they had the courage to 'take a bold strategic decision' In other words, they don't really have a plan, but they are happy playin…
If they gave the engineers appropriate severance packages, then they're at least out that much as a stupidity tax, but that's probably the most we can expect as far as consequences for the exec suite.
Presumably they're also out the top 10-20% of talent which immediately found jobs elsewhere and would have little interest in returning to Ford to work under such incompetent management.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#85> The return of the veteran engineers at Ford cuts against the prevailing wisdom — and fear — that AI will replace all kinds of knowledge workers. But Ford found the machines couldn’t replace experience. I'm not sure this story is illustrative of that, when you have a VP of engineering saying “Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers tha…
> He's saving face while almost certainly trying to figure out how to make the new systems work so that next time he won't need to rehire engineers.
Yup. They jumped the gun. Now they need to hire them back so they can loot their expertise and never hire another senior. I'm not saying this will work, but it's pretty obviously the plan.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#86Interestingly, there were no consequences for the execs that made this 'mistake'. There seems to be almost unlimited cover for execs cargo culting on using AI as a pretext for layoffs. If it doesn't implode almost immediately, they get massive bonuses, if it blows up in their face, oh well they had the courage to 'take a bold strategic decision' In other words, they don't really have a plan, but they are happy playin…
The social contract that American society elect (including these non executive engineers) emphasize career flexibility (right-to-work) and returns of capital than job security. Especially during booming economic years.
I am not sure engineers in say, Europe have any lower career flexibility. It's a false narrative to claim otherwise.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#87I would literally be homeless before I went back to a company that fired me to replace me with AI, then asked me to come back.
As a homeless person, do not wish homelessness on yourself.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#88I would literally be homeless before I went back to a company that fired me to replace me with AI, then asked me to come back.
How about if they doubled your previous salary?
I wouldn't go back, regardless of salary offer, unless I didn't have any other jobs lined up. If I'm not employed than any job (even a bad one) beats being unemployed. But if I was employed, I wouldn't go back to a job where they laid me off for stupid reasons, no matter how much money they offered.
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#89> The return of the veteran engineers at Ford cuts against the prevailing wisdom — and fear — that AI will replace all kinds of knowledge workers. But Ford found the machines couldn’t replace experience. I'm not sure this story is illustrative of that, when you have a VP of engineering saying “Over prior years, we didn’t pay as much attention as we should have to the experience of our most knowledgeable engineers tha…
Maybe. That's one interpretation. A lot of hiring/firing decisions get read through the lens of AI, hard pro or hard con. Reality is always a mixed bag. They certainly will want to try to build up a better automated pipeline, but the question is can they, and can they cost-effectively vs hiring a few more people?
Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
#90This is excellent news. I'm glad some executives are starting to understand that AI will never replace an engineer with knowledge. AI is just a tool that needs guidance. If they put people without knowledge in charge of the machine gun, they will never be able to hit any target. Junior and mid-level engineers will never become super engineers by telling AI, "Just do this."