Earlier quoted context omitted.
I genuinely cannot understand why this comment was killed. Even if you disagree with the position, there's nothing at all objectionable about how it's being presented.
I think it’s because it’s ignoring the impact of concentration and the range of affected jobs. When, say, people switched from animals as the primary source of motive power for shipping, relatively few people immediately lost their livelihood because the things now using engines still employed tons of people (a delivery guy had to learn to drive but the rest of the job was similar) and a bunch of new jobs were create…
Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
191–200 of 249 posts
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's an argument about the speed of change though, a society going through the technological evolution from blacksmithing to industrial metallurgy didn't experience it happening in the short-medium term (1-10 years), it had a gradient of change. Over time with the speed of technological development compounding on itself, the rate of change becoming much more acute, there's a debate to happen on the "what if this c…
I mean, arguably AI is faster (but it's equally arguably oversold, certainly we aren't seeing that kind of change yet). But the stuff I cited was faster than you think. In the rural US, in 1900, most routine transport was still done with horses. By the 20's it was basically all in trucks, and trucks don't need hand-forged shoes that the blacksmiths were making[1]. Likewise professional typists were still clacking awa…
The professional typist' role evolved - to serving through other ways, as you say - by become executive assistants. Much like a Bank Tellers' role also evolved.
And its not because they (executives) are too lazy to type. They actually need people to manage their calendar, monitor emails etc. Moreover, the personal computing revolution led to an expansion of firms that needed more of said people.
Could this be disrupted by things like OpenClaw? Maybe. Personally I doubt it. Trust is a huge element that LLMs have yet to overcome and may never over come. Its the same reason Apple pulled "Apple Intelligence". I know this place is full of doom and gloom, but I am not a SWE by trade so I can see the bigger picture and not get bogged down by the fact it might affect my income.
Moreover, work is more 'fun' with people around. So to you it may seem irrational to keep employed for that basis (call it Culture) but to others, and in particular the executive class - nope. People will start realising things like this once the hysteria dies down.
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#193Just checked. They have 162,000 employees. So thats like 18% cut? I don't even know what that company does. I'm sure it's valuable for a reason, just never understood what they do. Edit: Google says they sell Database software. OK.
You don't know what Oracle does? What?
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your response is over the top. Oracle isn't going to fire 30,000 employees to fund anything. That's the story for Wall Street. Oracle went on a huge run in the market, that it did not deserve, and they're going to attempt to hold on to as much of that gain as they can. Wall Street will applaud slashing jobs if you can give them a good reason for it (and sometimes with no reason at all). Amazon, Meta, Apple, Nvidia, M…
Who cares about US vs. China. We're talking about jobs here and economy.
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why "funny"? Seems obvious to me that Apple is going to provide LLM at the edge. Who else would besides Google?
Oh lets see. They were ridiculed for being 'behind on AI'. They haven't spent a dime on investing in AI-related infrastructure and so on... And yet, they could stand to be the biggest beneficiaries if not the only. Given that they have plenty of resources in reserve and they are buying back stock - enabling insiders to have a greater say on actions in the future.
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
All of them famous for top heavy bureaucracies meddling in industry and highly political byzantine rules for business, which is the current drumbeat the west is following.
Lumping "the West" as one thing in this argument is just wrong. The West is composed of so many different countries with their own legal systems, cultural baggage, bureaucratic and political processes which evolved differently over time that it makes your sentence meaningless. From my own experience moving from Brazil, having ran businesses there, and later in life moving to "the West" (Sweden) there's simply no comp…
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I heard this canard my entire life. It’s been said for centuries. If you want maximum employment pass a law that says all grass must be cut with scissors. Otherwise let productivity gains diffuse out - that’s the only way to increase true wealth
You need to explain, from a systems point of view _why_ the gains must diffuse out as you suggest. We have analogs we can compare to: massive wealth injections through a natural resource such as oil. Now what happens to that wealth is not obvious; for some countries it's a curse with radical inequality and pernicious and robust power structures, in fewer it has been bestowed to the heritage of the people (think Norwa…
Especially because there's no a priori reason to expect it to occur "naturally". Strong inequality arises automatically in mathematical models.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-inequality-inev...
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's wrong to characterize this in terms of belief. This is the behavioural outcome of the influential pressure of a systemic structure. Infinite exponential growth is something we ALL "believe" in when we put a dollar into savings and expect to get a dollar and 5c out the next year. The problem to me seems more that we tie all sorts of OTHER structural societal constructs to this one. To the degree that if w…
> Infinite exponential growth is something we ALL "believe" in when we put a dollar into savings and expect to get a dollar and 5c out the next year. Isnt that linear growth?
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are a software vendor, and the theory goes all the software vendors will go away, because AI will just build your business software on the fly. So they are trying to "become AI"! Also Oracle is owned by Larry Ellison and hes in a competition with the other tech bros.
Oracle is also OCI, oracle cloud initiative. My understanding/impression is that oracle is betting the company on its success.
Re: Oracle may slash up to 30k jobs to fund AI data-centers as US banks retreat
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
LLM are not real "AI", but are good at some types of problems like context search, and isomorphic plagiarism. Regulatory capture to manufacture a monopolistic position is what many are planning. As gambling with other peoples money still has few fiscal consequences (see 2008), but will hurt Americans when the bubble implodes. Note more cheap energy for home users typically means higher standards of living, and the We…
Oracle is building giant datacenters/cloud stuff for AI, not their own LLMs