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Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

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Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#211

Post by ChumpGPT »

bdangubic wrote: post #119
gnufied wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same goes for almost all grocery shops here - Publix, Kroger, target etc replacing checkout with self-checkout kiosks completely. I absolute hate using self-checkout for non-packaged groceries items. Especially if I have lots of stuff. Freaking "unintended item in baggage area". Not to mention, I feel like Publix etc in particular employed lots of folks with disability. It warmed my heart to talk to them. I don't kno…

[flagged]

Some folks who do this feel like if the store is making them work, they might as well get paid for it. I guess there is the argument that using self check out saves the store money so you should enjoy some savings too. I'm curious whether retailers have already built that into the price everyone pays.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#213

Post by rahimnathwani »

RugnirViking wrote: post #41
cm2012 wrote: post #35

This is good for society just like any productivity enhancing invention. You'd think a place like HN would know that the only way the world has ever gotten better has been innovation improving per-human output.

in theory: customer support automation frees up support workers from focusing on repetetive customer issues to being able to devote more time to those difficult issues, providing better service at lower cost in practise: have you ever used any automated customer support for anything? it speaks for itself - it's literally worse than nothing.

  in practise: have you ever used any automated customer support for anything?
I've used it to cancel orders, cancel subscriptions, change a broadband package, arrange a return/refund for faulty goods.

Do you prefer to talk to a human for things like this?

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#214

Post by jstx1 »

usednet wrote: post #174
jarjoura wrote: post #134

If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. However, every advancement that has come in the last 100 years that improved efficiency has only meant we're pushed to work more and do more. So I am now expected to do 2x the work. If you're really dreaming for AI that can wipe-out entire classes of decent middle-class jobs in one big swing, don't forge…

The logical conclusion that people don’t like to hear is that there will need to be a fundamental restructuring of the economy. AI will, in the not so distant future, eliminate the vast majority of jobs. The choice will then be between a socialized economy or barbarism.

I don't think it will eliminate the vast majority of jobs, more likely that it will significantly reduce the demand for certain jobs in an uneven way. I guess some of this depends on the time horizon you're looking at too.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#215

Post by nverno »

vikinghckr wrote: post #194
yreg wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mode quality of life is also sky high compared to 100 years ago. So is the median quality of life. Mode and median were raised even faster than the average. Humanity managed to uplift a huge fraction of people out of extreme poverty. In 1820s around 70-80% people lived in extreme poverty In 1920s it was around 60-70% In 2020s it's around 10% source: e.g. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/e20f2f1a-en/index.html?…

That this even needed to be said on a forum like HN baffles me. I suspect it's a result of decades of mainstream political/cultural doom-and-gloom propaganda.

This quality of life metric is purely economic, but it is easy to read it as general life quality- personally, I'd swap now for 1820s homesteading out west in a heartbeat even though that would register as 'extreme poverty' on the economic scale.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#216

Post by BaseballPhysics »

jarjoura wrote: post #134

If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. However, every advancement that has come in the last 100 years that improved efficiency has only meant we're pushed to work more and do more. So I am now expected to do 2x the work. If you're really dreaming for AI that can wipe-out entire classes of decent middle-class jobs in one big swing, don't forge…

> If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it.

The only way that'll happen is worker co-ops. The benefits of increased productivity always accrue to the owners, not the employees.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#218

Post by RugnirViking »

carlosjobim wrote: post #68
RugnirViking wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in theory: customer support automation frees up support workers from focusing on repetetive customer issues to being able to devote more time to those difficult issues, providing better service at lower cost in practise: have you ever used any automated customer support for anything? it speaks for itself - it's literally worse than nothing.

In practice I see a lot of businesses murdering their competition because they offer better customer service.

the biggest companies in the world (microsoft, google, netflix, amazon, facebook) have pretty awful customer service no imo. What kinds of companies are you talking about?

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#219

Post by ChumpGPT »

boringg wrote: post #179
ChumpGPT wrote: post #139

>These job cuts, according to the employee, were driven not merely by a CEO’s misguided “bet,” but rather a shift towards replacing full-time employees with cheaper contract labor Good Lord, how much cheaper can you get than Canadian labor? They already get paid poorly and earn about 1/2 or less than their US counterparts. I guess the lack of jobs is why they can pay so little, explains why so many Canadians flee to…

I think you need some numbers there. Pretty sure it isnt 50% ;)

Well to be honest, our company hired a bright kid out of Waterloo who couldn't find work in Canada for over a year ( Nanotechnologies ). Or at least work that paid more than their minimum wage. Super sharp and is doing great in Material Sciences. If a kid like that can't find work in Toronto, Ontario, I have no idea what the hell is going on up there.

Re: Shopify employee breaks NDA to reveal firm replacing laid off workers with AI

#220

Post by wahnfrieden »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #216
jarjoura wrote: post #134

If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. However, every advancement that has come in the last 100 years that improved efficiency has only meant we're pushed to work more and do more. So I am now expected to do 2x the work. If you're really dreaming for AI that can wipe-out entire classes of decent middle-class jobs in one big swing, don't forge…

> If the promise of AI means I can do 1/2 the amount of work and maintain my high quality life, then I'm all for it. The only way that'll happen is worker co-ops. The benefits of increased productivity always accrue to the owners, not the employees.

And somehow most people consider this wrong
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