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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

#301

Post by the_only_law »

jacquesm wrote: post #291
hwillis wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Says who? What jobs did the industrial revolution eliminate? Essentially just spinners and weavers, and that caused a violent social uprising by the Luddites. Textiles were far outweighed by the industrialization of steam power, ironworking, and machine tools. Those three things did not put people out of jobs, they just created huge numbers of new jobs and tota…

Not a lot of textile still made in Europe. The Luddites got that one right, they were just a bit off about the timing. But this AI thing, assuming it manages to click the ratchet a few more times has the potential to eliminate a good 50% of all of the remaining blue collar jobs and a sizeable fraction of the rest. That is the sort of economic blow that I highly doubt we are prepared for. The big problem is that I don…

> they are eliminated, not transformed this time around and that is a very serious change in the recipe.

Don’t worry. Everyone and their mother will just go into the trades. Years from now we’ll be browsing PlumberNews where we’ll get to hear about how the demand for plumbers is infinite and how “plumbing is eating the world” and not to worry about massive increase of labor supply from people who are working on building plumbing robots.

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

#302

Post by thatguy0900 »

bugglebeetle wrote: post #255
bushbaba wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally disagree. You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Yet here we are living better lives from the technological breakthroughs. AI will just usher the next industrial revolution of the modern era.

> You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Yet here we are living better lives from the technological breakthroughs. You understand that the course of the Industrial Revolution was a huge increase in barbarism, correct? People forced off their lands, children into factories, labor conditions that were horrendous across the board. Violent labor upheavals, WWI, a communist revolution, the rise of fascism…

It won't, the AI revolution also comes with fully autonomous weapons systems that will keep the rabble in their place this time around. I think the days of labor having the ability to violently threaten the government are also coming to a end.

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

#303

Post by ilyt »

bushbaba wrote: post #234
usednet wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Totally disagree. You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Yet here we are living better lives from the technological breakthroughs. AI will just usher the next industrial revolution of the modern era.

And it will bring even bigger income inequality because yet again the rich can pay to replace the workers while reaping the benefits and avoiding taxing those benefits

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

#304

Post by dheera »

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.

What I'd personally really hope for is a future in which AI and robotics allow high quality food, housing, transportation, clothing, state-of-the-art medical care, and basic necessities to be available for free to everyone. Basically, a modest, comfortable, safe middle-class-quality life should be free and provided for by robots to everyone in the world.

Anything above that, one would have to work for. It would also likely be a world in which any work humans voluntarily do is interesting work. There might also be some kind of analog art renaissance.

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

#305

Post by renewedrebecca »

monero-xmr wrote: post #208
usednet wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

strawman. socialism != communism.

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

#306

Post by coldtea »

bushbaba wrote: post #234
usednet wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Totally disagree. You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Yet here we are living better lives from the technological breakthroughs. AI will just usher the next industrial revolution of the modern era.

>Totally disagree. You could have said the same of Industrial Revolution. Yet here we are living better lives from the technological breakthroughs.

We're living more comfortamble lives and with more trinkets. More stressful, more depressed, more isolated, more damaging to the environment, more casually controlled and supervised, even downright less able to reproduce in the more modern of societies (the total gift of death)...

And especially in the first centuries of the industrial revolution peoples lives got a huge turn for the worse, pushed into cities and factories, working up to 16 hour shifts, little kids working just the same in body breaking conditions, discarded as useless when they had an accident, and so on. And it's not some change they welcomed either. They were pushed into it, by the rich classes destroying their previous livelihood, by legal changes making it impossible to survive, and even by raw police and millitary force. And they resisted tooth and nail to keep their previous way of life.

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

#307

Post by rcme »

function_seven wrote: post #137
rcme wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Order groceries online. It's much more convenient for large orders.

I used to to this when my Vons operated it’s own fleet. Then they switched to instacart and it went dramatically downhill. Cold items sitting in their hot trunk, 4-hour delivery windows, and an order that just never arrived. The Teamsters did a good job. The underpaid gig workers don’t. (And frankly, I’m not sure I blame them.)

Yea I definitely wouldn’t use Instacart. The incentives aren’t aligned between the store, picker, and customer.

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

#308

Post by jacquesm »

the_only_law wrote: post #301
jacquesm wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a lot of textile still made in Europe. The Luddites got that one right, they were just a bit off about the timing. But this AI thing, assuming it manages to click the ratchet a few more times has the potential to eliminate a good 50% of all of the remaining blue collar jobs and a sizeable fraction of the rest. That is the sort of economic blow that I highly doubt we are prepared for. The big problem is that I don…

> they are eliminated, not transformed this time around and that is a very serious change in the recipe. Don’t worry. Everyone and their mother will just go into the trades. Years from now we’ll be browsing PlumberNews where we’ll get to hear about how the demand for plumbers is infinite and how “plumbing is eating the world” and not to worry about massive increase of labor supply from people who are working on build…

If it weren't serious it would be very funny indeed.

Plumbing really is eating the world, by the way ;)

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

#309

Post by thatguy0900 »

vikinghckr wrote: post #278
vbezhenar wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about quality of life compared to 50 years ago? I guess it depends on country but I feel like my parents generation lived better life compared to mine.

What did they have you don't?

My parents bought a house and went on multiple family vacations every year and never really were too concerned about money, saving up a decent amount for retirement. My mom was a teacher in a poor inner city school and my dad was a low level insurance salesman. My mom never had to worry about student loans, they were easily paid off. I think trading fiscal peace and security for an iPhone is a bad trade.

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

#310

Post by ajsnigrutin »

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…

One tractor can do the work of tens of people easily, and in the last ~150-200 years, we've gone from a vast majority of people producing food to a tiny minority, while the rest can be social media managers and feng-shui specialist. One excell spreadsheet can do the work of a 100+ paper-based accountants, and that's even before a database and automation.

We could've stopped at tractors, lived the same lifestyle as before, but with 1-2 hours work per day (or even less), but we decided we wanted and needed more, and more is what we got.

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