Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

941–950 of 1001 posts

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#941

Post by Lu2025 »

sfblah wrote: post #869
jatora wrote: post #633

While I agree that the current 'bloodbath' narrative is all hype, I'm honestly confused by a lot of the sentiment i see on here towards AI. Namely the dismissal of continual improvement and the rampant whistling past the graveyard attitude of what is coming. It is confusing because many of the dismissals come from programmers, who are unequivocally the prime beneficiaries of genAI capability as it stands. I work as a…

You're right, of course. Most of this thread is some sort of weird motivated reasoning by people who are terrified of the reality of what lies ahead. I work at a top-10 tech company. We've stopped hiring junior talent, and it's 100% because of AI. I'm something like 2x more productive since using AI. We're now deploying agentic AI systems to further reduce headcount. The actual bloodbath will happen when there's any…

> when there's any kind of financial pressure on the company (a recession)

When was the last time there was no financial pressure? I keep hearing how hard it is to be a small business owner for as long as I'm an adult and it's like a quarter century by now.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#942

Post by wnc3141 »

saubeidl wrote: post #617
leflambeur wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's simply the old Capital vs Labor struggle. CEOs and VCs all sing in the same choir, and for the past 3 years the tune is "be leaner". p.s.: I'm a big fan of yours on Twitter.

Except Labor in Tech is unique in that it has zero class consciousness and often actively roots for their exploiters. If we were to unionize, we could force this machine to a halt and shift the balance of power back in our favor. But we don't, because many of us have been brainwashed to believe we're on the same side as the ones trying to squeeze us.

I think the issue at play here is the quickly changing job descriptions, RSU's and the higher paid bunch benefiting from very unequal pay across a job category.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#943

Post by tilne »

leflambeur wrote: post #471
nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone else think the fact that companies hire superfluous employees (i.e. bullshit jobs) is actually fantastic? I do. It's much more important that people live a dignified life and be able to feed their families than "increasing shareholder value" or whatever. I'm a person that would be hypothetically supportive of something like DOGE cuts, but I'd rather have people earning a living even with Soviet-style ma…

tech bros think not only that that system is good, but that they'd be the winners

I think the more optimistic interpretation would be that companies eliminating bullshit jobs would provide signal on which jobs aren’t bullshit, and then individuals and the job prep/education systems could align to this.

That’s very optimistic! I don’t fully agree with it, but I certainly know some very intelligent people that I wish were contributing more to the world than they do as a pawn in a game of corporate chess.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#944

Post by arthurbrown »

Ray20 wrote: post #902
ricardobayes wrote: post #557

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frankly, we don't know. That "turning point" that seemed so close for many tech, never came for some of them. Think 3D-printing that was supposed to take over manufacturing. Or self-driving, that is "just around the corner" for a decade now. And still is probably a decade away. Only time will tell if GenAI/LLMs are color TV or 3D TV.

>Think 3D-printing that was supposed to take over manufacturing This was never the case, and this is obvious to anyone who has ever been to factories that doing mass-produced plastic >Or self-driving, that is "just around the corner" for a decade now. But it is really around the corner, all that remains is to accept it. That is, to start building and modifying the road infrastructure and changing the traffic rules to…

What modifications to infrastructure are you anticipating needing?

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#945

Post by chasd00 »

tilne wrote: post #917
asadotzler wrote: post #863

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In 10 years with the same amount of money and time that's been pumped into AI, still a financial black hole, we had the entire broadband internet build out completed and the internet was responsible for adding a trillion dollars a year to the global economy.

If your point is that AI/LLMs aren’t as transformative as broadband internet, I don’t think anyone here is seriously making that claim, right?

Maybe not here but the news and social media seems to think LLMs are even more transformative than the printing press let alone inet.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#946

Post by WorkerBee28474 »

jameslk wrote: post #512
simonsarris wrote: post #465

I think the real white collar bloodbath is that the end of ZIRP was the end of infinite software job postings, and the start of layoffs. I think its easy to now point to AI, but it seems like a canard for the huge thing that already happened. just look at this: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1JmOr In terms of magnitude the effect of this is just enormous and still being felt, and never recovered to pre-2020 lev…

Keynes suggested that by 2030, we’d be working 15 hour workweeks, with the rest of the time used for leisure. Instead, we chose consumption, and helicopter money gave us bullshit jobs so we could keep buying more bullshit. This is fairly evident by the fact when the helicopter money runs out, all the bullshit jobs get cut. AI may give us more efficiency, but it will be filled with more bullshit jobs and consumption,…

> Keynes suggested that by 2030, we’d be working 15 hour workweeks

Yeah, I'd say I get up to 15 hours of work done in a 40 hour workweek.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#948

Post by freefrog334433 »

ireadmevs wrote: post #636
kergonath wrote: post #580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was extrapolating, as well. Going from children in the mines to the welfare state in a generation was quite something. Unfortunately, progress slowed down significantly for many reasons but I don’t think we should really blame Keynes for this. > We live in a time that the working class is unbelievably brainwashed and manipulated. I think it has always been that way. Looking through history, there are many examples…

There’s no middle class. You either have to work for a living or you don’t.

Traditionally there were the English upper class, who had others work for them, and the working class who did. Doctors and Bankers were the middle class, because they owned houses with 6-8 servants running it, so while they worked, they also had plenty of people working for them.

I agree with your point. Now doctors are working class as well.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#949

Post by Armisael16 »

esperent wrote: post #928
rglover wrote: post #831

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO this is dead on. AI is a hell of a scapegoat for companies that want to save face and pretend that their success wasn't because of cheap money being pumped into them. And in a world addicted to status games, that's a gift from the heavens.

ZIRP is an American thing? In that case maybe we could try comparisons with the job markets in other developed Western countries that didn't have this policy. If it was because of ZIRP, then their job markets should show clearly different patterns.

There isn’t anything magically about precisely zero percent interest rates; the behavior we see is mostly a smooth extension of slightly higher rates, which the EU was at.

And of course ZIRP was pioneered in Japan, not the US.

Re: The ‘white-collar bloodbath’ is all part of the AI hype machine

#950

Post by bernawil »

catigula wrote: post #296
ajmurmann wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am VERY pro-immigration. I do have concerns about the H1B program though. IMO it's not great for both immigrant workers, as well as non-immigrant workers because it creates a class of workers for whom it's harder to change employers which weakens their negotiation position. If this is the case for enough of the workforce it artificially depresses wages for everyone. I want to see a reform that makes it much easier…

I want to use you as a bit of a sounding board, so don't take this as negative feedback. The problem is that the left, which was historically pro-labor, abdicated this position for racial reasons, and the right was always about maximizing the economic zone.

was the left ever truly anti-immigration? I genuinely ask. Because the last leftwing explicitly pro-union movement I can remember was the late 90s/2000s anti-globalists, the ones that used to protest the G7 summits and the like. But they were in favor of immigration, so it always seemed contradictory. Anyway, it's not like the right doesn't have its own equally contradictory positions.
Post reply on HN