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Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

businessinsider.com

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Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#171

Post by c22 »

mike_hearn wrote: post #108
9dev wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just the slippery slope of neoliberalism. The ends do not justify the means, no matter how you spin them: A company will not fail if you continue to employ parents of many children, employ a regional candidate, or write fair performance reviews regardless of strategic goals. If any of these cases appears to lead to the downfall of a corporation, there were much bigger problems looming that actually caused the…

Why are you switching between corporations and companies as if they're the same? I actually do know of a small company that was quite badly screwed over by a vindictive employee who hated her boss, deliberately did not quit because she knew she was about to have another child, got pregnant and then disappeared for a year. Local law makes her unfireable almost regardless of reason (including not actually doing any wor…

It's okay for unprofitable companies to fail. Desirable, in fact.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#172

Post by c22 »

Ekaros wrote: post #83
blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some will not survive their customers abandoning them. Think about the typical automated voice response on a customer service line. Imagine that becoming far more pervasive. And it slowing you down and becoming a barrier while you desperately try to get help with your insurance claim or mortgage or whatever. It’ll be absolutely awful and companies that built trustworthy services with humans who pick up the phone will…

My guess is that people will keep buying the cheapest option. And only notice things when they actually need it. So market won't fix itself.

Yes, the majority of business will be conducted with large corporations that offer completely enshittified customer service. Whenever a user has a bad experience with one, they will switch to another.

However, there will be a selection of smaller firms, offering a more human touch, which will manage to survive just by virtue of above average customer retention. As these businesses continue to succeed and grow they will enshittify their own processes until they are indistinguishable from the incumbents.

AI changes nothing about this.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#173

Post by c22 »

paradite wrote: post #73
m00x wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For most industries the tech isn't the primary product. Google sells ads, not tech Uber sells rides, not tech. Amazon sells a marketplace, not tech. Tesla sells cars, not tech. Tech is just the tool.

Yes. Those products you listed are not in tech industries by my definition as well. You are right. Google ads is in ad industry. Uber is in transport industry. Amazon is in electronic commerce industry. I'm glad that we understand that we are talking about different things.

Can you provide an example of a company I would have heard of that is in the tech industry, just so I can get a better understanding of what y'all are talking about?

Is Oracle in the tech industry?

Also on the blog post you linked you seem to imply that you do consider Google to be a tech industry company, so I am very confused.

> In tech industry, software is the main product of the company. It can be sold to a customer (B2C product) or a business (B2B product).

> For example, Facebook is the main product of Meta. Google Search is the main product of Google.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#174

Post by c22 »

mklepaczewski wrote: post #99
28304283409234 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decent? They create debt among teenagers. As if they don't have enough angst they now also have to worry about fines for having bought something marketing scum manipulated them into buying and Klarna allowed them to pay-now-regret-soon.

Teenagers are allowed to take high interest loan? Where? I think in Poland it would be possible for every parent to refuse repay such a loan.

I think probably anyone could refuse to repay a $120 unsecured loan with pretty limited consequences.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#175

Post by dagw »

mklepaczewski wrote: post #99
28304283409234 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decent? They create debt among teenagers. As if they don't have enough angst they now also have to worry about fines for having bought something marketing scum manipulated them into buying and Klarna allowed them to pay-now-regret-soon.

Teenagers are allowed to take high interest loan? Where? I think in Poland it would be possible for every parent to refuse repay such a loan.

18 year olds aren't considered adults in Poland?

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#176

Post by blibble »

gruez wrote: post #132
Sloppy wrote: post #131

Now maybe AI will buy their products?

It never makes sense to employ people as a jobs program, just so you can get more customers.

henry ford essentially created the middle class with the approach that you are saying "never makes sense"

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#177

Post by dagw »

c22 wrote: post #174
mklepaczewski wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teenagers are allowed to take high interest loan? Where? I think in Poland it would be possible for every parent to refuse repay such a loan.

I think probably anyone could refuse to repay a $120 unsecured loan with pretty limited consequences.

In Sweden at least they will just send it to collections. Something which down the road could potentially negatively affect your possibility to, for example, rent an apartment, and in theory they could even garnish your wages if you keep refusing to pay.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#178

Post by gruez »

blibble wrote: post #176
gruez wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never makes sense to employ people as a jobs program, just so you can get more customers.

henry ford essentially created the middle class with the approach that you are saying "never makes sense"

Is there any evidence for that claim aside from it being an oft-repeated tale on the internet? Mathematically it can't possibly work, because you're spending $80k (or whatever) on an employee that might spend $30k on a car every 5 years, so paying $80k/year to get $6k/year in revenue. It's actually worse than that, because Ford only makes around 15% gross margin, so at best that's $900 of money you get back for spending $80k on an employee. That's so low that Even if you account for money multiplier effects, it's unlikely you'll get anywhere near break even.

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#179

Post by lazide »

ablation wrote: post #20

Nearly every CEO I’ve talked to in the past three months (only a handful, admittedly) has said something along these lines, if not quite as extreme. They genuinely believed the current state of the art is polished and powerful enough to replace huge swathes of coders, designers, writers, etc. leaving only a middle-management supervisory layer and some lower-level grunts to herd the bots. Or it’s a good PR ruse to sca…

There is massive burnout in the industry, was massive over hiring, etc. and folks are trying to keep numbers going up and to the right somehow even when the economy is not helping.

AI gives them a smokescreen, gives them fear/uncertainty they can use as leverage over their workforce, and sometimes can help efficiency (but usually not, if you factor in any element of quality - which usually they can get away with ignoring at first).

Re: Klarna CEO: Company stopped hiring because AI 'can do all of the jobs'

#180

Post by paradite »

c22 wrote: post #173
paradite wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Those products you listed are not in tech industries by my definition as well. You are right. Google ads is in ad industry. Uber is in transport industry. Amazon is in electronic commerce industry. I'm glad that we understand that we are talking about different things.

Can you provide an example of a company I would have heard of that is in the tech industry, just so I can get a better understanding of what y'all are talking about? Is Oracle in the tech industry? Also on the blog post you linked you seem to imply that you do consider Google to be a tech industry company, so I am very confused. > In tech industry, software is the main product of the company. It can be sold to a cust…

It depends on what you consider as core product for Google.

For some people (consumer), it would be Google Search, it is a piece of software, so in that sense Google is a tech company because its main product is Google Search.

However, for marketers, who use Google Ads, to them they deal with the ads division in Google, and that division's main product is the ads service. So in that indivision, the main product is ad space, not software. And rightfully so Google Ads is not in the tech industry, but ad industry enabled by tech.

For pure tech companies, I would say AWS division in Amazon, Microsoft (Windows, Azure, GitHub divisions), Facebook/Instagram division in Meta (not Ads division).

Then there are a lot of companies that just sell software as a service (SaaS) or just software license, they are millions of them, but to name a few: Figma, Slack, Vercel, Supabase, Docker, OpenAI, Salesforce, Oracle.

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