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Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

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Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#381

Post by parineum »

dingaling wrote: post #245
ijidak wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's worth reflecting on why it's so hard to convince hold outs to discover how AI might help them I have. My conclusion is... humans are deeply irrational when it comes to rapid change. Egg or olive oil prices spike, humans out an entire government. The rate of immigration spikes, humans throw them into camps and break useful treaties. Most of the resistance I've observed amongst engineers is resistance to change…

> resistance to change generally Nah, software engineers were always butterflies fluttering from one language or framework to the Next Hot Thing. Change was part of the job, if you didn't keep up you fell behind and atrophied. Resistance to AI is, I think, more because it is seen as an existential threat, or because it's something whose ultimate long-term outcome is still undefined. It's going to be either a benefit…

I think I can offer an alternate explanation and it jives with your first point.

When I use AI to completely write code for me (not using it as a powerful auto complete), it's not fun. I don't learn anything. It takes everything I love about software development and makes it just like any other job.

I'm also never happy with the result and, when I go back to make it work the way I want it to, I have to learn a new code base that isn't built the way I would have. If that happens to a project I'm working on as a hobby, I find it incredibly unmotivating.

It turns my intellectual pursuit into an assembly line and I hate that.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#382

Post by chadgpt3 »

twa927 wrote: post #183
ryandrake wrote: post #17

Not just Amazon, too. It feels like all of big tech (and some smaller firms) have simultaneously gone insane. Imagine if your CEO woke up one day and told the company: "We need to encourage travel spending. Please book as many business trips as you can, and spend as much money as possible. Fly first class to our satellite offices! Take limos instead of Ubers! Eat at fine restaurants! Make sure you are constantly trav…

It's like if class-based society materialized within the IT. And the manager class collectively pushes the narrative of AI replacing ICs. Note that it has beaten capitalism, making rational choices to increase earnings has lost to this AI dream.

Note that propagandizing managers was a rational choice by AI companies to increase the revenue of AI companies.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#383

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

ryandrake wrote: post #17

Not just Amazon, too. It feels like all of big tech (and some smaller firms) have simultaneously gone insane. Imagine if your CEO woke up one day and told the company: "We need to encourage travel spending. Please book as many business trips as you can, and spend as much money as possible. Fly first class to our satellite offices! Take limos instead of Ubers! Eat at fine restaurants! Make sure you are constantly trav…

Spending is just a proxy for AI use here. This is nothing new. I remember past CEOs saying “Ajax! Ajax! Ajax!”, “Big data! Big data! Why aren’t we using Big data!”

AI is just the next tool to over spend on in poor ways, realise it’s shit and spend a ton more money trying to roll it back.

The situations where is shines will continue to use it when the hype dies down.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#384

Post by chadgpt3 »

philipallstar wrote: post #70
Qem wrote: post #68

It's a shame AI now has a universal basic jobs[1] program, but humans still not. Companies are paying AI to dig holes, so other AI can fill them. [1] https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

We didn't. The USSR had 100% employment long ago[0], and all the poverty that goes with it. This isn't like that, as it isn't funded through taxes. This is private companies experimenting with their money, and risking downstream cost increases that may cause people to go elsewhere, as they do when they try anything new. This is much better than just funding people regardless of productivity through forced taxes. [0]…

Some of these companies derive their revenue in a way similar to taxes, as you're forced to pay them for services. I don't see why it matters whether it's technically defined as a tax or not, if you still have to pay. Think of the TV license fee in some countries, or rent.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#385

Post by parineum »

danaw wrote: post #375
jordanb wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been noticing how our economy keeps getting more Soviet as it becomes more top-down. We basically have central planning now with all the pathologies inherent in that system, but unlike the soviets we just have a bunch of guys who happened to get rich or bribe the right people running our GOSPLAN.

soviet-coded minus the cheap/free housing and public transit

And famine

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#386

Post by chadgpt3 »

Qem wrote: post #82
philipallstar wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We didn't. The USSR had 100% employment long ago[0], and all the poverty that goes with it. This isn't like that, as it isn't funded through taxes. This is private companies experimenting with their money, and risking downstream cost increases that may cause people to go elsewhere, as they do when they try anything new. This is much better than just funding people regardless of productivity through forced taxes. [0]…

> We didn't. The USSR had 100% employment long ago[0], and all the poverty that goes with it. I don't think USSR poverty rates surpassed those of Tsarist Russia that preceded them. To their credit, I think ideologic competition between capitalist and communist blocks was part of what allowed improvement of life conditions of workers in capitalist countries, after WWII. Fear of revolutions avoided one-percenters takin…

This is correct.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#387

Post by chadgpt3 »

philipallstar wrote: post #313
Qem wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We didn't. The USSR had 100% employment long ago[0], and all the poverty that goes with it. I don't think USSR poverty rates surpassed those of Tsarist Russia that preceded them. To their credit, I think ideologic competition between capitalist and communist blocks was part of what allowed improvement of life conditions of workers in capitalist countries, after WWII. Fear of revolutions avoided one-percenters takin…

No, the ideas of individual liberty, law enforcement, and private property meant that central planners couldn't mess up the US. That's all you need to massively raise standards of living. That and energy from oil.

We have central planners in the US. For instance Jeffrey Bezos, Sam Altman, Elon Musk. They compete with each other for planning power, but they compete by making the best plans for themselves, not for society.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#388

Post by s1ngular1ties »

dyauspitr wrote: post #291
malfist wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I brought data to this discussion. What did you bring?

[flagged]

100%. My engineering teams velocity (and I mean this in terms of bug free, valuable needle moving features shipped) has gone up immensely. TBF it was already a very talented senior group of people, but having that kind of group embrace the tooling for what it is has made a massive difference.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#389

Post by s1ngular1ties »

0xy wrote: post #147
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s honestly 10x worse than LOC. At least in the human era LOC had correlation to shipping features. It’s more like bragging about compiler cycles spent.

I don't know where you're working but LLM enhanced development has skyrocketed our rate of feature development. As an example, a project roadmapped to take 7 months was delivered in only 4.5 because of CC/Codex. I'm confused how anyone could believe it isn't an enhancer, unless they have refused to use any of the technologies.

Yeah I’ve experienced much the same as you. Like it’s overwhelmingly clear from everything it’s enabled for us that we’re going far, far faster than we ever have, and the guardrails we have in play have helped guard the architecture and make it even harder to commit a bad PR. Sometimes in reading these comments I’m left wondering what sorts of experiences people are having elsewhere that’s left them this soured on its usage in business.

Re: Amazon workers under pressure to up their AI usage are making up tasks

#390

Post by s1ngular1ties »

syntheticnature wrote: post #109
andai wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obligatory: Negative 2000 Lines of Code https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381252

Versus my sibling comment to yours, I actually sent that to some internal folks after the bit about AI+total lines committed was said.

I’m surprised that lines removed isn’t something your bosses at the time weren’t also advocating for, TBH. I don’t blame you for looking around.
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