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US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

bloomberg.com

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Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#151

Post by cmiles8 »

khuey wrote: post #139
cmiles8 wrote: post #93

There’s very little evidence of AI replacing jobs en mass. There a ton of evidence that underperforming companies are trimming fat, with CEOs citing AI impacts rather than their own bad decisions that led to the fat that needed trimming.

AI is perfect for this because you get to sweep bad decisions you made under the rug and look like a forward-thinking visionary. Why would any CEO not blame their layoffs on AI, true or not?

That’s exactly what’s happening.

Problem is though that nobody is really buying that narrative anymore.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#152

Post by bombcar »

sarchertech wrote: post #122
jdietrich wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Brit, it seems hilarious that a single person with an income of $97k would be on the poverty line. That's more than double the median income for all households in the UK. A lot of Americans don't seem to realise how fantastically wealthy they are compared to the rest of the world. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personal...

That’s a completely absurd number. No single person making just under $100k a year is living in poverty. Even in a high cost of living area. The article also repeatedly discussed median salaries, but average costs. And it includes full time daycare costs for young children that only last for a few years. Also housing prices are high but you can certainly afford an apartment as a single person making $100k a year. But…

But they need to pay for college for their non-existent kids!!!

Sometimes these puff-pieces blow my mind.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#153

Post by darth_avocado »

mempko wrote: post #134
winrid wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because the most optimized company builds the most wealth and power and puts you out of business or destroys you.

If this was true, the big tech companies would be the most optimized. Maybe efficiency isn't the biggest factor.

Most optimized company would have 0 employees and only shareholder value.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#154

Post by shwaj »

drstewart wrote: post #68
jjk166 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stock market isn't the economy. Note that stock prices are denominated in dollars. If the dollar price of a stock doubles, but in the same time period the value of the dollar halves, then the stock's value hasn't gone up at all. Compare the price of the Dow Jones to to gold and its value peaked in 1999, and has been nosediving for the past 18 months[0]. The ratio right now is the same as it was in late 2008. Obvi…

Cool. Now use the value of a dollar denominated in Bitcoin. Or do you only like cherry picking your statistics?

I’m as skeptical of fiat currencies as the next guy, but denominating in Bitcoin is the ultimate cherry pick.

The price of everything has crashed in the last 10 years when denominated in Bitcoin. If we measured GDP in Bitcoins, the statistics would show that we’re in an unprecedented depression.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#155

Post by winrid »

mempko wrote: post #134
winrid wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes because the most optimized company builds the most wealth and power and puts you out of business or destroys you.

If this was true, the big tech companies would be the most optimized. Maybe efficiency isn't the biggest factor.

Power is the biggest factor. Efficiency helps. I bet they're more efficient than most people think, it just doesn't scale linearly.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#156

Post by Xeoncross »

cdrnsf wrote: post #141

Every interaction I have with AI where I previously would’ve interacted with a person is worse. Whether that’s something mundane like scheduling an appointment, use at a doctor’s office, chat support. I imagine it’s cheaper for the company deploying it, but it’s all bad. It lines up with companies being more concerned with investors than actual users and customers though.

Ah, but it's cheaper. Replace "AI" with "auto parts" or "store food" and you see the same thing. Replace "AI" with "police force" or "contractors" and it's the same thing.

Why is everyone and everything getting worse? A sort of "Prisoner's dilemma" I suppose: no one wants to take a stand and lose their business edge just for principles sake.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#157

Post by LogicFailsMe »

senordevnyc wrote: post #82
LogicFailsMe wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Nothing they said is a defense of anything.

I work with AI every day. It can do some amazing narrowly focused things and the ability to do so is a bit terrifying. But it (still) loses its mind and goes wackadoodledoo when faced with the nonlinearity of a typical employee's day job. Therefore, attributing these layoffs to AI means TLAs are idiots or it's cover for getting rid of people that should have never been hired, or maybe both?

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#158

Post by 0gs »

ACCount37 wrote: post #83
themafia wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you replace customer service with LLMs I will look for a way to stop doing business with you.

Why care if "unthinking execution of a generic customer service script" is performed by an interpreter made of silicon or flesh? Neither has any free will to deviate from the script. Both are useless in any case that's not handled by the script. The silicon one has better wait times though.

because the customer doesn't get to pretend that if they got angry enough, a real live person could be made to suffer by being fired. if anything, making the humans follow the canned responses only encourages this thirst for revenge in the customer. now THAT'S efficiency!

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#159

Post by hysan »

amazingamazing wrote: post #31

The reality no one ever wants to talk about is that big tech doesn't need as many employees that it has. Anyone who has worked in big tech knows it is true.

I’ve had a longstanding belief that big tech purposely over-employed because it denied resources to competitors. This gave them a velocity edge despite being big and bureaucratic. In the new AI world, denying resources doesn’t slow competitors down anymore because AI raises the productivity floor. Now that over-employment brings no competitive advantage, we’re seeing huge cuts.

Re: US is starting to see heavy job losses in roles exposed to AI

#160

Post by roxolotl »

Xeoncross wrote: post #156
cdrnsf wrote: post #141

Every interaction I have with AI where I previously would’ve interacted with a person is worse. Whether that’s something mundane like scheduling an appointment, use at a doctor’s office, chat support. I imagine it’s cheaper for the company deploying it, but it’s all bad. It lines up with companies being more concerned with investors than actual users and customers though.

Ah, but it's cheaper. Replace "AI" with "auto parts" or "store food" and you see the same thing. Replace "AI" with "police force" or "contractors" and it's the same thing. Why is everyone and everything getting worse? A sort of "Prisoner's dilemma" I suppose: no one wants to take a stand and lose their business edge just for principles sake.

This is why a political solution is the only way forward. I’m optimistic that people are finally fed up but who knows.
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