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A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

nytimes.com

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Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#81

Post by customguy »

bpodgursky wrote: post #28
willis936 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's good. It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor. Projects I work on have seen prices soar. I don't consider building the things everyone hates because they promise concentration of wealth and an attack on labor at the expense of building literally anything else to be somehow a big W for labor because a few people get a slightly higher temporary paycheck. Ask the Wagyu cows how they fee…

There's sort of no winning here! AI unemploys middle-class workers: AI is stealing jobs from the middle class! AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

The employment is temporary, what follows a net negative, is the idea.

And "AI" as a concept has has no agency. This is all about humans who seek to further concentrate wealth.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#82

Post by [deleted] »

bpodgursky wrote: post #28
willis936 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's good. It also prices out a lot of other better uses for their labor. Projects I work on have seen prices soar. I don't consider building the things everyone hates because they promise concentration of wealth and an attack on labor at the expense of building literally anything else to be somehow a big W for labor because a few people get a slightly higher temporary paycheck. Ask the Wagyu cows how they fee…

There's sort of no winning here! AI unemploys middle-class workers: AI is stealing jobs from the middle class! AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us!

[deleted]

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#83

Post by signatoremo »

cmiles8 wrote: post #32

The same thing happened with the oil sands boom 15 years ago. Industrial sites were losing skilled trades people left and right as they went up north to make 2-3x their salary. Then that bubble popped and these folks were tossed onto the street before they could blink. By all means go make money if the opportunity presents itself. I love to see well compensated trades. But be under no illusions that when the bubble p…

The clear plan for electricians and carpenters is to eh continue to do electrical and wood works. Or do you think they would be out of work if there are no more AI-related jobs?

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#84

Post by gib444 »

logicchains wrote: post #77
gib444 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> AI employs unionized middle-class workers: AI is stealing cheap labor from the rest of us! What cheap labour? Tradespeople are not cheap (especially if you factor in the quality of the work). This just makes them even more expensive. Meaning a big impact on homes – you know, the things people and families live in, in order to survive. Pretty important

>Meaning a big impact on homes – you know, the things people and families live in, in order to survive. Maybe those people should pay their tradespeople better then. Everybody's all "workers should be paid more" until they're the one paying the worker.

Everyone should just compete with the trillions of dollars of capital floating around for AI? And it's their fault for suddenly being 'poor'?

Sounds like you're assuming people are paying pennies for labour. I don't think that's true at all

While we're at it, how much should small bathroom, 2 week renovation cost? $100,000 in labour?

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#89

Post by kvisner »

I would be very careful about basing your career decsions based on this trend. The data center build out will always be very boom and bust, which would really suck to work in. One year you would be making 300k working on dataceters and the next you would make 30k because thousands of electricians are now competing to build a few single family homes.

Re: A.I. companies are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands

#90

Post by customguy »

logicchains wrote: post #76
fluoridation wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not even talking about at work, I'm saying that a large majority of Americans are using AI of their own free will in situations where it's not required but is genuinely useful. The sheer number of people means that a lot of them must also say they're anti-AI, and my point is that whether or not they say they like it they're undeniably choosing to use it. I don't think there's really a contradiction there. You ca…

>You can recognize the utility of something while acknowledging that, on the whole, it'd be better if it didn't exist. There's a word for that: hypocrisy.

That's when you say others shouldn't use it while you use it.

I don't like the parts of the city that are full of concrete and (edit: lacking) trees. I still walk or drive through there instead of making a huge detour, I still use them because that's what's there, currently. I know processed food sucks, sometimes it's easiest to grab something that's quick to make or can be eaten instantly because the supermarket is full of them.

And even assuming it means hypocrisy, so? You think you'd withstand examination? Face the arguments, instead of using some abstract fantasies about some average AI critic that doesn't exist as an excuse. At least they're only hypocritical like everyone else including you, instead of acting like a 3 yo, "yeah but you're stupid, so".

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