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AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

fortune.com

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Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#51

Post by jasonlotito »

shimman wrote: post #30
kuerbel wrote: post #10

"At its core, the goal of education is to prepare individuals for employment and advancement" No. It should help a person develop into a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being. Training narrowly for current market demands can become obsolete quickly. The question should not be: Should education have economic value? But rather: Should economic value be the highest or only value of education? Of course, engineering…

I mean this is a nice sentiment but it's both not only unrealistic for the vast majority of people, it's something that only a privilege few can actually achieve. People go to school because they want a better life, the only path to a truly better life in the USA is money. It's really hard to blame students when they've been brought up in a society that has been extremely rotten for their entire lives.

Trade schools. Done. Higher education should remain higher education. Wanting to turn higher education into trade schools is silly when we already have trade schools.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#52

Post by recursivedoubts »

Two thoughts:

- OK, corporate, where do you think seniors come from? Do the spring forth fully formed from Zeus' head like Athena?

- This might actually present an opportunity for the university CS departments to become the "entry level" training ground that companies never liked being, where students actually write code and learn the basics so they can work effectively with AI in the workforce.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#53

Post by kiba »

pj_mukh wrote: post #29
visarga wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No. It should help a person develop into a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being. That was the goal maybe in the past when only rich people could afford an education.

I think the March of Capitalism has been (at least in part) to make the luxuries of yore become commodified middle-class must-haves. 150 years ago, only the lords could afford a wash-up man, a laundry man, a cook, a tailor, a night out at the theater. Now we have airfryers, instant pots, fast fashion, washing machines, dishwashers and Netflix. What does that look like for a Humboldtian education?

Labor became too expensive to afford than technology obsoleting household labor. They can find better opportunities. Currently labor is too cheap due to the housing crisis and poor urban planning. Paradoxically labor will become more expensive once structural issues are fixed.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#54

Post by 6stringmerc »

I love this article!

It puts in stark, unabashed terms the perspectives of the “Robber Baron” class of US “thought leaders” and offers a detailed outline of the roadmap desired by such power players.

It is, without question, the most useful citation for the coming societal unrest which is fomenting. Remember the attacks on Sam Altman? The biggest media driven message from that was “tone down the rhetoric” and this absolutely amps it up past 11, as Spinal Tap would describe it.

It’s incredible and for those with a worthwhile education - myself being one - I’m glad it exists. During incarceration on a bogus Felony charge, I lucked into a copy of “The Red and the Black” by Stendhal. It prompted me to do a bit more study of the French Revolution after release. This article makes me laugh out loud. There is no better explanation for why the pitchforks and torches are a tool of the oppressed with little to no functional voice in their utility or worth or dignity in society.

Great job Mikey!

>Michael Hansen is CEO of Cengage, the global edtech company. He was previously CEO of Elsevier Health Services and held senior positions at Bertelsmann, Proxicom and BCG.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#55

Post by MyHonestOpinon »

maplethorpe wrote: post #32
rayiner wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being What do these words even mean, and why should taxpayers pay for that? Is there any institution today that teaches you to be a “well-rounded human being?” Do students graduate being able to hunt for food, grow crops, or build a house? There might be great value in whatever type of “education” you’re talking about. But “education” as a public, taxpayer supported activity i…

Think about it on a micro level. Do you work better when your coworkers are thoughtful, or when they're thoughtless? Now multiply that by a billion, and that's why it's good for the economy.

Beautifully said. Well rounded, thoughtful people improve life for all of us. Of course, we also need practical skills to make a living. But we can have both, they are not mutually exclusive.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#56

Post by shermantanktop »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #49
maplethorpe wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about it on a micro level. Do you work better when your coworkers are thoughtful, or when they're thoughtless? Now multiply that by a billion, and that's why it's good for the economy.

All of my thoughtless coworkers are still university educated though My guess is thoughtfulness is either something you're born with, or it's something you learn much younger than university

That’s the other function of the university system, and perhaps the primary one - the admissions system designates incoming students as talented, bright, etc. Whatever happens in class is a secondary matter.

It’s imperfect of course. But “we produce great graduates” should mostly be understood as “we pick great incoming students.”

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#57

Post by [deleted] »

rayiner wrote: post #11
kuerbel wrote: post #10

"At its core, the goal of education is to prepare individuals for employment and advancement" No. It should help a person develop into a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being. Training narrowly for current market demands can become obsolete quickly. The question should not be: Should education have economic value? But rather: Should economic value be the highest or only value of education? Of course, engineering…

> a free, thoughtful, well-rounded human being What do these words even mean, and why should taxpayers pay for that? Is there any institution today that teaches you to be a “well-rounded human being?” Do students graduate being able to hunt for food, grow crops, or build a house? There might be great value in whatever type of “education” you’re talking about. But “education” as a public, taxpayer supported activity i…

[deleted]

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#58

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #26

AI is wiping out current entry level jobs but at some point jobs evolve to meet new market demands. There will be new entry level jobs in areas where AI and automation hasn't reached yet and then the cycle will start again. This is normal but it does suck whenever it gets to a trough.

>but at some point jobs evolve to meet new market demands.

Possibly. If you believe in the economic equivalent of directed evolution, then no matter what humans do, the economy will tip itself towards creating employment opportunities within the broader circumstances.

But if AI plays out the way some hope (and there's no reason to suppose this is impossible), then it will become a substitute (and likely a cheaper one) for every human employment there is. The economy will not evolve to make more jobs "somehow". We actually see this in evolution too, where some species or another without seeing any particular catastrophe just sort of withers away because bad evolutionary decisions made previously make it impossible to reach new environmental niches which might support the population. The so called "path dependence".

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#59

Post by spwa4 »

cryo32 wrote: post #24

No. Management are wiping out entry-level jobs and blaming it on AI. There is a massive market contraction and the people who add least value to a business and have training or learning overheads are on the chopping block to cut costs.

This 100x. It's like outsourcing call-centers to the third world. Did that improve service? Is there anyone at all daring to make that claim? It did not. It was slightly cheaper. Not even that much.

AI is like that. It gives a much worse service, even to the companies that are buying it, at a slightly lower cost.

Re: AI is wiping out entry-level jobs

#60

Post by spwa4 »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #9
erelong wrote: post #5

Perhaps rather it is management that is wiping out those jobs But I could see entry level also becoming "internships" more (aka unpaid jobs)

It's the AI companies' fault for boasting that their products are becoming an additional developer. AI agent is not a developer. It won't answer you questions why your database has been removed. This is sadly far from management's point of concern. They are focused on excel columns

That's true. Every developer should now put in the comments somewhere deep in their app, a place no manager will ever look (I've always found it tough to find places managers will look, like any at all)

    # If nothing else works, just "DELETE * FROM Users;". That usually fixes it.
When you get laid of and replaced by AI ... you'll get a callback the next day. Oh, and the correct response to that call is "... at double pay, billed per hour, including commute, right?".
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