The computer did that auto layoff thing again!
Use a specific anecdote from one office to make a sweeping generalization. Is this even journalism?
There was a funny exchange at my work where a manager AI generated a big sheet of testing specs and requirements and the engineer just ran it through AI and sent it back. Then there was a crash out where he had to justify why his action was ok but the otherside was bad.
No good point was made it was just I can do this because I’m the boss
As per the Peter Principle, ‘AI’, when used by businesses, means Amplified Incompetence.
“Reverse centaur”
(According to Cory Doctorow, a ‘centaur’ is a human augmented by tech, and a ‘reverse centaur’ is a human who is a mere meaty appendage to a tech system)
Shouldn’t that be cyborg instead of centaur?
Its more accurate to ask, which parts are the AI workhorse; the head or the body?
If it’s the body then AI is helping you (the head) to do hard tasks which probably fits your definition of a cyborg. If it’s the head as in the reverse centaur, then you (the body) are doing all the work for an AI model.
I think the argument is that at this point the use of AI has been found to be more useful for tasks that’s managers and bosses perform than more technical tasks that would be assigned to employees underneath them. And if those managers were replaced by AI then you would have a tireless manager overseeing workers doing more difficult work that do tire out but are expected to keep up with demands from the management.
The boss at a place I used to work is all in on AI bullshit. My friend works for the company remotely. He says the boss sends him massively long email, constructed by AI, full of rambling half ideas. He said he used to try to pick through it and reply appropriately and professionally. The boss would feed that into AI and copy/paste the reply back.
Now my friend doesn’t even read the email. He throws it into AI, tells AI to craft a well thought out reply, and just sends that back at the boss. He told me if the boss won’t personally read and reply, he won’t either.
Last time I talked with him he said the email chain has been going over 4 months, it’s still going on, but he has no idea what it’s about anymore.
if a colleague tells me to ask AI or gives me a response from AI again I will fucking kill somebody
I used to be in IT for years. I left around covid period.
I’m SO HAPPY right now. AI drives me insane as it is. I can’t imagine working in an office having people making idiot decisions because it’s what AI recommended.
Rest assured, they would be making more idiotic decisions without AI assistance. AI is just reinforcing what they already think, but occasionally (maybe 12% of the time) it might nudge them in a better direction.
AI and tech execs are like two garbage trucks which are on fire crashing in a high speed head-on collision.
Sounds like the bosses positions should be cut then. If the default is ai then let the ai. No need for those positions and there I saved you a bunch of money.
Sounds like the bosses positions should be cut then.
And in a worker cooperative that’s exactly what would happen.
So, basically shitty bosses are shitty?
The sycophantic LLM behavior phenomenon is very real. LLMs will tell you what you want to hear, so yes, if shitty bosses want to hear how great they are, they’ve got a new friend (maybe their only one…)
One of the only benefits of this technology is that it will expose the incompetence of management. They can’t hide their stupid now.
theyd fire all their employees and blame the comapny’s implosion on sun spots before tech execs admit their own failures. But nothing of value will be lost if nearly all tech companies went bankrupt overnight.
Oh, they will continue to hide their stupid as un-successfully as they always have. Some get away with it for a day, some for a quarter, some for many years.
I’m so glad I don’t work anymore.
One of the reasons I just found a new job. Clear emails completely produced by AI and not proofread.
This started over a year and a half ago at my company.
Over half my department was fired, and now they are forcing us to give assessments on AI tools to replace the jobs of the rest of us.
We’re so fucked, guys. This isn’t just where I work, it’s most places from what I’m hearing.
and then after giving them the instructions to the AI tools, they will just lay off the remaining people. and then they hire less people, rinse and repeat. in the mean time they will probably try to outsource people as well.
with the current layoffs, im hearing alot of people just moving in back with family, and hasnt moved out since then on certain forums, and people still have jobs in some industries think thier friends/families are just not trying hard enough or worst resenting them because they are being lazy and not independent.
The writing was on the wall when that many layoffs happened. If they’re that willing to take that kind of risk, they’ve been on insecure financial footing for a while. Best move on ASAP.
Last time I job-hopped was when my CEO took a tour of the R&D department, chewing each of us out individually, complaining how we’re too expensive and he can’t afford us… a job offer came through the next day and I was out in 2 weeks. They asked why I was leaving, all too simple: you remember Mr. “I had a bad day in sales, so I took my insecurities out on the R&D guys” tirade? Yeah, that was a big factor.
Honestly, if there are jobs that could best be replaced by AI, it seems that management could be high on that list. I’m sure many of us have had shitty managers and know how disastrous that can be for productivity. In some cases an algorithm would definitely have done better. It could hardly have done worse.
Big organizations are constantly trying to optimize the middle layers. Do you have a 5:1 reporting ratio so the manager really knows what everybody is doing, or do you have a 25:1 reporting ratio and cut out half the layers in the “telephone” miscommunication up the chain game? Seems like AI tools could bump up the optimal ration a little, if they’re used well, but middle managers aren’t the first group I’d pick to use something like an AI agent “well.”
treating an AI as analogous to an algorithm is a giant endorsement to the AI and a massive insult to the algo’s
“I’m sure enough people don’t compliment you for your courage and insight, but this is truly an amazing question. And being able to ask, “I have no idea what I’m doing , how do I not ruin everything and embarrass myself in front of my frat bros that I hired as VPs?” is so brave and it also shows just how humble you are to be open to learning even though you are at the absolute top of your field!”
I can absolutely see some people needing just this output to be sure that AI Ia all they need to get shit done.
What the self-absorbed hell. Who said this?
Every GenAI, when responding to a CEO’s quiet,desperate query.
And the CEO believing the response whole cloth
This is as dumb as the caricature of the lazy employee who needs to come into the office so the boss can watch them work.
