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Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

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Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#181

Post by mukbangpervert »

drob518 wrote: post #91
yifanl wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is a huge cost for this either way (severance packages, yes, but also lost productivity, reduced team coherence, etc), but that unfortunately doesn’t necessarily translate to a political cost for the managers involved in pushing the dumb idea, particularly if the CEO was pressuring everyone for cost savings. They will escape by saying, “We did it because everyone else is doing it and we were told it was the rig…

There's the added cost that the best people are the least likely to return after a layoff.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#182

Post by thewebguyd »

foxyv wrote: post #67

There are two kinds of knowledge. There is explicit knowledge which can be codified easily in markdown files or a wiki. Then there is tacit knowledge which is mostly encoded in the experience of an organization's individuals. Explicit knowledge is like the tip of a giant institutional knowledge iceberg.

And that tacit knowledge doesn't have easily quantifiable value, it doesn't show up on the P&L so most execs don't consider it. I've seen it time and time again over my career, someone leaves or layoffs happen without considering this and then the company is scrambling to figure out processes that someone was quietly running or maintaining for years that no one else even thought of.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#183

Post by 9dev »

thewebguyd wrote: post #134
calgoo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could always be hired as contractors at x5 the cost for a fixed contract over 2 years to train the ai.

Wouldn't be a bad deal tbh depending on age and how much you have already for financial independence in retirement. If my employer offered me a deal that would allow me to retire early, comfortably, to train my AI replacement, I'd take it. If they succeed, well I'd have gotten laid off anyway. If they fail, I get to laugh all the way to the bank with my newly found free time.

Sounds like meta would be just the company for you!

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#184

Post by pojzon »

Avicebron wrote: post #111
mikepurvis wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This sentiment feels like a relic of a previous age. Yes _maybe_ but it's also equally likely that the best they laid off was on the ropes for months trying to battle ghost job spam and AI filters. It's almost shaming anyone who isn't hired someone immediately as deficient and "not the best". Honestly the conversation should be focused on how the execs can he made responsible.

Im not calling for any action, but that kid doing something about Healthcare CEO - that did help.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#185

Post by boredatoms »

thewebguyd wrote: post #128
drob518 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a huge cost for this either way (severance packages, yes, but also lost productivity, reduced team coherence, etc), but that unfortunately doesn’t necessarily translate to a political cost for the managers involved in pushing the dumb idea, particularly if the CEO was pressuring everyone for cost savings. They will escape by saying, “We did it because everyone else is doing it and we were told it was the rig…

> We did it because everyone else is doing it and we were told it was the right thing. How were we to know that it wouldn’t work?” And why does the board/shareholders allow a CEO to continue into their position by just following everyone else? I'm sure things are different at massive scales, but I run my own side business (photography). I watch the local market, and I have the attitude of "Whatever everyone else is d…

Boards are usually filled with ex-CEOs who also thought these dumb bets were good

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#186

Post by helterskelter »

thatfrenchguy wrote: post #174
khriss wrote: post #57

Interestingly, 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…

Consequences for American car executives, are you crazy? Have you seen Stellantis cars recently? Large parts of the US (and European most likely) car industry is driving straight into irrelevance

On the topic of Stellantis, I rented one recently (through no fault of my own) and when I returned it the guy asked me how it was. I told him I wouldn't drive one of those things again if they paid me, and the guy said "yeah we get that a lot, let me get you the discount".

It sounded like they had a "Stellantis discount" for people who said something.

Nice guy, actually.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#187

Post by freediddy »

yifanl wrote: post #70
khriss wrote: post #57

Interestingly, 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.

If they take the job they likely need to give back some or all of the severance package.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#188

Post by ClarityJones »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #73
thewebguyd wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This idea is everywhere right now, that AI is some magic black box that will solve all your business problems. The sentiment is spreading through the exec team where I work now too. It's like a disease. C-suites completely disconnected from reality and assuming we've already achieved ASI/AGI, and marketing teams & business journals are only furthering that narrative. It's so weird. I don't know what it is about AI th…

> It's so weird. I don't know what it is about AI that causes people to throw all thought and caution to the wind and charge forward blind. Its like they've been chomping at the bit for decades to get rid of those pesky humans and are so hyped up over it they can't see clearly anymore. It's just a hype cycle. In my 15 years in data, I've seen around 3-4. Every time leadership get way too invested in the possibilities…

AI is particularly infectious among C suites, because AI is great at spewing words. A substantial portion of folks in those positions are there because of family connections, existing wealth, etc., and their only contribution to the business is similarly spewing words. They went to good colleges where they excelled at spewing words. They worked cushy / hard jobs where they had to spew the just the right normal predictable words for this context, perhaps at a large volume and with little notice... and the words were hard words... not known to those outside the industry.

For those that lack initiative, strategy, a real understanding of their business, engineering, etc., the spewing words is the whole thing. It overshadows their entire understanding.

Re: Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors

#189

Post by Schiendelman »

WarmWash wrote: post #136

Ford has hired 350 engineers over the last 3 years which happened alongside short comings in using AI inspection tooling. This has nothing to do with LLMs and instead is almost certainly about their MAIVIS and AiTriz pilots, which use old school CNNs on custom IBM hardware to do visual inspections.

Yeah, it looks like this wasn't AI related. I hope yours grows to be the top comment!
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