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OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

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Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#201

Post by bluefirebrand »

zozbot234 wrote: post #111
nicce wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the issue is that there is no common benefit if the private company is the only one doing the replacement. Are we ready for AGI before we solve issues of capitalism? Otherwise, the society may get a harsh reset.

There's actually a lot of common benefit. That company can now supply their goods and services in greater quantity and at lower cost, which raises consumers' standard of living. Meanwhile the workers who were previously employed in menial clerical tasks will simply switch to supervising the AI's that perform those same tasks for them.

> That company can now supply their goods and services in greater quantity and at lower cost, which raises consumers' standard of living

It turns out that standard of living requires more than just access to cheap goods and services

Which is why despite everything getting cheaper, standard of living is not getting better in equivalent measure

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#202

Post by daedrdev »

alexashka wrote: post #134
daedrdev wrote: post #64

Why are people saying its AI and not the current administration running the economy into the ground?

Because the 'trend' of the economy going into the ground has been consistent for decades.

A few years ago the economy was adding a lot of jobs and the wage gains for the poor were rapidly outpacing inflation

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#203

Post by depr »

BeetleB wrote: post #68
ryanackley wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a comment on the ethics of replacing jobs but the hypocrisy of companies using "ethics" as reasoning for restricting content. They are pursuing profits. Their ethical focus is essentially a form of theater.

Replacing jobs is not an ethical issue. Automation and technology has been replacing jobs for well over a century, almost always to better outcomes for society. If it were an ethical issue, then it would be unethical not to do it. In any case, which jobs have been replaced by LLMs? Most of the actual ones I know were BS jobs to begin with - jobs I wish had not existed to begin with. The rest of the ones are where CEO…

Your definition what is an ethical issue is reductive. It means the issue involves ethics, and they are obviously involved. Even if ultimately society at large would benefit from the disappearance of certain jobs, that can still create suffering for hundreds of thousands of people.

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#204

Post by GoatInGrey »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #16
dfxm12 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salesforce CEO confirms 4,000 layoffs ‘because I need less heads’ with AI - https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/salesforce-ceo-confirms-4000...

You have to trust they are actually telling the truth and not using it as a convenient scapegoat. What sounds better to shareholders “we’re replacing jobs with AI” or “we hired too many during the COVID hiring glut and need to lay more people off”?

But what if I want the option that validates my untreated anxiety?

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#205

Post by fourg »

muskyFelon wrote: post #19
apwell23 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they don't even replace any jobs, they suck out all money out that was previously going to employ people doing useful things. I feel like we need a new word for money going to datacenters instead of paychecks. 'AI taking jobs' implies AI is doing the work , which is not the case.

It also seems like a lot of these layoffs due to AI are just regular layoffs. Let's reduce headcount and spin it as AI disruption! That way we dont have to acknowledge we overhired during covid AND our stock price will go to the moon as they say.

bingo!

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#206

Post by bluefirebrand »

moduspol wrote: post #158
odie5533 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are remarkably few actual success stories of AI actually replacing employees directly. If I employ 100 people, and AI makes them 10% more productive, then I only need 90 people now to do the same work. AI doesn't have to replace people 1:1 for it to result in job losses. It just needs to increase productivity (or be seen to even). And you might think 100 people that are 10% more productive now I have 110! But…

> If I employ 100 people, and AI makes them 10% more productive, then I only need 90 people now to do the same work. I think it's yet to be seen that AI actually makes people 10% more productive, and further, that getting a task done 10% faster actually means they have 10% more time that is actually used for additional tasks. And more bluntly: I think if it actually were happening, it'd be a lot more plainly obvious…

It would be insanely obvious if this was actually happening but instead we are seeing a massive economic downturn

So it's all fairy tales and unicorn farts as far as I'm concerned

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#207

Post by potato3732842 »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #188
potato3732842 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of clerical tasks where people are crossing defined things with other defined things that could be somewhat automated expensively before can be somewhat automated less expensively enough to be worth doing now. So jobs being killed by AI are basically being killed same way that office number crunching technology killed administrative assistant positions and put those tasks onto other people. Take for exa…

Can the AI find alternative suppliers when your current ones go out of business or closes down production lines (even just for short term re-tooling)? Can AI negotiate when you get a big sale and need a huge production run? There are so many moving parts that a human juggles, more than what you list. All AI solutions seem like this. Automate the day to day duties of a job, when the real value of the person doing the…

That's like saying machines are bad because people still hand excavate ditches in the last couple feet near utilities. You are missing the point. Anyone who can do the full job isn't missing anything by skipping the drudgery.

Every task the AI can juggle for you is one you don't have to. If your department goes from 4 to 3 great, if it goes from 2-1 or 1-0 that's fine too. Companies already exist at those numbers. You can think about it in terms of "a company can now be bigger before they need a dedicated person/team for job X" if that helps take the emotion out.

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#208

Post by DrewADesign »

fuzzfactor wrote: post #198
DrewADesign wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the good devs that I know aren't worried about losing their jobs While many of them are mistaken, the much bigger problem is for all the early career developers, many of whom will never work in the field. These people were assured by everyone from professors to industry leaders to tech writers that the bounty of problems available for humanity to solve would outpace the rate at which automation would reduce the…

For another thing the owners of the data centers may not do so well if their wildest dreams fail to come true, and if they don't happen to make enough money to replace the hardware before it wears out.

I’m not saying AI isn’t useful or won’t get more useful, but the entire business side of it seems like a feedback loop of “growth at all costs” investment strategies.

Re: OpenAI eats jobs, then offers to help you find a new one at Walmart

#210

Post by gamblor956 »

madamelic wrote: post #108

Either I am mistaken that Walmart was offering store associate type jobs or the author doesn't realize Walmart has software engineering teams. Quite a few non-tech companies have very hip, modern, and high-power tech teams behind them. https://github.com/walmartlabs Walmart has been doing this level of work since at least 2013/2014 to my knowledge so it's not something new. Getting a job on the Walmart engineering te…

Walmart's backoffice functions are great jobs...if you want to live in Bentonville.

The issue is that you have to live in Bentonville. They don't allow remote work, and they're willing to let a position remain open for years for a candidate to arrive willing to move to Bentonville. They recruited me for a role several years ago and that position is still unfilled.

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