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Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

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Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#71

Post by franktankbank »

singron wrote: post #8

I think you might not get serious responses, but I think this is an interesting question since I think AI is a better fit for management than many other jobs. Nobody would have believed it 10 years ago, but today AI is more likely to replace a concept artist than an accountant, so it's not beyond imagination to replace a manager even if the ICs are still human. AI excels at summarization, which is a big part of the j…

Whole point of deep hierarchies is to diffuse responsibility. Either risky behavior goes down, or someone in the smaller hierarchy takes on larger risk relative to a similar person in that role at an earlier point in history. It would be my hope that risky behavior decreases because I'm not quite seeing the benefits of GDP going up forever and ever.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#72

Post by Balgair »

Guys, I think my company is literally going to try this. I'm not joking.

We fired ~1/3rd of the managers last month. We had a (poor) town hall about it with platitudes galore. I talked to my new boss (was a skip level boss before) and they were unconcerned, as we'd 'brought in a new vendor' to 'assist in the transition'. I've never heard of bringing in a single vendor to help after manager layoffs. Since I do AI stuff in the company, the remaining managers have been keen to talk with be about AI now and how to use it better. I'm not sure what is really happening (I think it's just internal politics mostly) but there is a >20% chance they're doing something this stupid.

Wish me luck, y'all.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#73

Post by mplanchard »

Balgair wrote: post #72

Guys, I think my company is literally going to try this. I'm not joking. We fired ~1/3rd of the managers last month. We had a (poor) town hall about it with platitudes galore. I talked to my new boss (was a skip level boss before) and they were unconcerned, as we'd 'brought in a new vendor' to 'assist in the transition'. I've never heard of bringing in a single vendor to help after manager layoffs. Since I do AI stuf…

Would love to read a blog post about this once this all shakes out.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#74

Post by spacemadness »

GianFabien wrote: post #57
chrisgat wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mentioned this to someone the other day, and they rebuffed that part of what you get with a CEO is their network and their ability to network. AI won't replace that, at least not anytime soon.

A recent WSJ article pointed out that 50% of board members are ex-CEOs. I think CEO networking is code for cartels & collusion . I think it is the layers of muddle management that could easily be replaced by AI.

Why are we proactively trying to recreate System Shock?

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#75

Post by singron »

autobodie wrote: post #38
singron wrote: post #8

I think you might not get serious responses, but I think this is an interesting question since I think AI is a better fit for management than many other jobs. Nobody would have believed it 10 years ago, but today AI is more likely to replace a concept artist than an accountant, so it's not beyond imagination to replace a manager even if the ICs are still human. AI excels at summarization, which is a big part of the j…

If a company wants to stay in business, the legal risk of AI bots firing people is probably not worth the cost savings. Until that changes, I don't think there's much to discuss, but that may not be long given the way things are going.

I don't think AI bots will make unilateral decisions about firing the same way a line manager typically won't. E.g. a manager will typically make a recommendation to a director and/or HR who will than review and approve the final action. A smart director should investigate themselves and might reassign the IC to another manager or in rare cases fire the manager instead (e.g. if they suspect retaliation).

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#76

Post by sotix »

palata wrote: post #64
autobodie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most fundamental duty of a CEO is to accept responsibility away from the board members, hence the large bonuses when they are let go. By definition, AI cannot do this. End of conversation. Same goes for managers in most cases. Firing people because an AI said to simply won't hold ip in court, at least for now.

> accept responsibility When was the last time a CEO went to jail because of illegal activities committed by the company? There is no responsibility. If the "responsibility" is "you become rich, and if you get fired we give you a huge bonus on top", then I'm pretty sure anyone would be happy to take it. Being a CEO is like being a politician. You need to convince others that they need you even if they don't, or you'r…

In the US, this happens hundreds or thousands of times per year. The last major CEO was probably more recent, but you have high profile CEOs in Sam Bankman-Freid, Elizabeth Holmes, and Ken Lay. In fact, after Enron, CEOs and CFOs took on significantly more responsibility and risk by being personally liable for the financial statements. CEOs are arrested all of the time, so I’m not sure I understand your point.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#77

Post by mvdtnz »

sotix wrote: post #76
palata wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> accept responsibility When was the last time a CEO went to jail because of illegal activities committed by the company? There is no responsibility. If the "responsibility" is "you become rich, and if you get fired we give you a huge bonus on top", then I'm pretty sure anyone would be happy to take it. Being a CEO is like being a politician. You need to convince others that they need you even if they don't, or you'r…

In the US, this happens hundreds or thousands of times per year. The last major CEO was probably more recent, but you have high profile CEOs in Sam Bankman-Freid, Elizabeth Holmes, and Ken Lay. In fact, after Enron, CEOs and CFOs took on significantly more responsibility and risk by being personally liable for the financial statements. CEOs are arrested all of the time, so I’m not sure I understand your point.

That's only a "risk" if the organisation is doing illegal things which are driven by leadership. CEOs are not arrested for law breaking they had nothing to do with.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#78

Post by palata »

sotix wrote: post #76
palata wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> accept responsibility When was the last time a CEO went to jail because of illegal activities committed by the company? There is no responsibility. If the "responsibility" is "you become rich, and if you get fired we give you a huge bonus on top", then I'm pretty sure anyone would be happy to take it. Being a CEO is like being a politician. You need to convince others that they need you even if they don't, or you'r…

In the US, this happens hundreds or thousands of times per year. The last major CEO was probably more recent, but you have high profile CEOs in Sam Bankman-Freid, Elizabeth Holmes, and Ken Lay. In fact, after Enron, CEOs and CFOs took on significantly more responsibility and risk by being personally liable for the financial statements. CEOs are arrested all of the time, so I’m not sure I understand your point.

If some employee of the company does something illegal, the CEO doesn't go to jail. The CEO is only responsible if one can prove that the CEO did something illegal. And that's the very least we can expect: CEOs are humans who should not be above the laws.

But you completely forget the whole spectrum of legal (including "shady") things: an incompetent CEO doesn't risk anything. They can sink a company, get fired and leave with a bonus bigger than most of the good employees will never earn in their lifetime. And then they will get hired as CEO of another company, because nobody seems to care. This is not responsibility.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#79

Post by GordonAShumway »

franktankbank wrote: post #71
singron wrote: post #8

I think you might not get serious responses, but I think this is an interesting question since I think AI is a better fit for management than many other jobs. Nobody would have believed it 10 years ago, but today AI is more likely to replace a concept artist than an accountant, so it's not beyond imagination to replace a manager even if the ICs are still human. AI excels at summarization, which is a big part of the j…

Whole point of deep hierarchies is to diffuse responsibility. Either risky behavior goes down, or someone in the smaller hierarchy takes on larger risk relative to a similar person in that role at an earlier point in history. It would be my hope that risky behavior decreases because I'm not quite seeing the benefits of GDP going up forever and ever.

Erm. Without risky behavior there’s no innovation.

Re: Ask HN: When will managers be replaced by AI?

#80

Post by byemini13 »

twodave wrote: post #14

IME most managers became managers because they preferred working with and helping organize people to creative contributions. I don’t see the need for any of these functions going away. I see productivity differences. Maybe the roles evolve. I think the real question is how do we best harness the increased productivity? Logically speaking, if each person is 5x as productive because of AI there should be an equally gre…

This is spot on. Independent of AI, we should replace managers who are not doing this. AI should enable good managers to focus more on organizing and motivating people to make meaningful contributions, rather than being an information disseminator.
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