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CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

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Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#21

Post by armada651 »

nitwit005 wrote: post #14
misano wrote: post #5

A common misconception about AI is that it is intended to fully replace humans, which is incorrect. The purpose of AI is to reduce the need for human labor, and it has already been doing so. For example—though this is not an exact figure—a task that previously required 15 people might now only need 10. In no instance has the human element been completely replaced; rather, the reliance on manual labor has simply been…

It's not exactly a misconception, when companies are pitching AI as a full and complete replacement for human employees. People are just reading the billboards on the side of the road.

I always found advertisements for AI to be so strange, why would you advertise your AI to the public as a danger for humanity that will also put everyone out of work? Such advertising would only appeal to sociopaths, but of course that's because it's intended to appeal to CEOs.

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#23

Post by jmyeet »

The primary product of AI is labor displacement and consequently wage supression. This is what OpenAI and Anthropic are really selling. It didn't start with AI but AI is accelerating it.

This is what layoffs have been about since the pandemic. People in fear of losing their jobs do extra unpaid work and aren't asking for raises. The theoretical potential of AI gives companies the excuse to fire more people. The investment itself is directly used as a reason of why they need to cut back on labor.

Any sufficiently sized business can only feed the insatiable hunger for ever-increasing profits ultimately by cutting costs and raising prices. And what do we have now? High inflation and a decline in real wages. CEOs are just following this playbook.

And the result is that society is bouldering towards collapse. We're seeing the first hints of this with the youth unemployment crisis [1][2][3].

Also, who is going to buy anything when nobody has any money?

[1]: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/americas-10-million...

[2]: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/twelve-ways-to-fix-the-yo...

[3]: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy026x9jpd0o

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#24

Post by glitchc »

saadn92 wrote: post #22

It’s hilarious to me that when you stop investing in juniors and seniors who use your AIs retire, what are they going to do then?

Who wants to be CEO for that long? The company will be sold off to a larger conglomerate long before that happens.

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#25

Post by trio8453 »

yCombLinks wrote: post #20
misano wrote: post #5

A common misconception about AI is that it is intended to fully replace humans, which is incorrect. The purpose of AI is to reduce the need for human labor, and it has already been doing so. For example—though this is not an exact figure—a task that previously required 15 people might now only need 10. In no instance has the human element been completely replaced; rather, the reliance on manual labor has simply been…

That sounds like 5 humans got replaced by AI. I don't think most people worry about whether all humans will be replaced, simply whether or not they will be replaced, or people they care about.

Which is very short sighted. You or anyone close to you might not be replaced but it should be clear that you don't want to live in a society with 20% unemployment.

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#26

Post by vineyardmike »

ungreased0675 wrote: post #2

A custom-built AI would be pretty good at replacing a CEO. Think of all the things a company could do if they reduced overhead by that much?

While I agree that AIs would do a good job…

Would you rather take instructions from a ruthless robot or ruthless flesh sack?

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#27

Post by willio58 »

everdrive wrote: post #11

There are a lot of bad CEOs, though. It's a lot like a politician -- it's quite difficult to become a CEO, and the skills to make it to that position don't always intersect nicely with the skills necessary to actually do the job well.

CEOs do get there with lots of politics in almost all cases. It’s all about who’s ass you kiss and who’s ass you don’t and if you’re lucky with timing things might just fall into place.

I think it’s exceedingly rare that a CEO is actually competent at their job. In most cases it’s the labor class propping the company up, and in some cases the workers are doing so against the wishes of the CEO. Not that executives want to ruin the company, they’re just incompetent and therefore make terrible decisions constantly.

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#28

Post by surgical_fire »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #15
ungreased0675 wrote: post #2

A custom-built AI would be pretty good at replacing a CEO. Think of all the things a company could do if they reduced overhead by that much?

Who takes responsibility when the AI does something unethical or illegal? Do we put the computer in jail? Or do we just look the other way like we do with human CEOs?

lol CEOs in jail.

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#29

Post by Henchman21 »

willio58 wrote: post #27
everdrive wrote: post #11

There are a lot of bad CEOs, though. It's a lot like a politician -- it's quite difficult to become a CEO, and the skills to make it to that position don't always intersect nicely with the skills necessary to actually do the job well.

CEOs do get there with lots of politics in almost all cases. It’s all about who’s ass you kiss and who’s ass you don’t and if you’re lucky with timing things might just fall into place. I think it’s exceedingly rare that a CEO is actually competent at their job. In most cases it’s the labor class propping the company up, and in some cases the workers are doing so against the wishes of the CEO. Not that executives wan…

You’re making the case for worker-owned cooperatives. Love it — we need more of them!

Re: CEOs who think AI replaces their employees are just bad CEOs

#30

Post by celdon25 »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #15
ungreased0675 wrote: post #2

A custom-built AI would be pretty good at replacing a CEO. Think of all the things a company could do if they reduced overhead by that much?

Who takes responsibility when the AI does something unethical or illegal? Do we put the computer in jail? Or do we just look the other way like we do with human CEOs?

I think Grok on x.com is a reasonable case study. There’s the stuff we heard about and then there’s a separate category of things that weren’t newsworthy, and only the newsworthy things prompted changes to be made.
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