3 ms·

Wouldn't you have to first automate the job? Speculative layoffs because something is going to be automated "any day now" seems unwise to me, how will the task

Wouldn't you have to first automate the job? Speculative layoffs because something is going to be automated "any day now" seems unwise to me, how will the task be completed tomorrow? Or is the idea that businesses already automated stuff and the management is so incompetent that IBM has to send around a pamphlet to remind them to layoff the people now sitting on their hands?

whstl 3y ago
The idea in those cases is not so much about automating jobs, but rather retaining less people but still getting the same productivity because the tools are helping. As an avid user of Copilot and ChatGPT, those tools definitely make me faster. Sure, I gotta review everything it writes. But it's already easier to review Copilot code directly in my VSCode window than that of a junior or mid-level developer in Github. I definitely wouldn't replace an employee with AI tools, though, and I don't see that changing... Also: whether we can replace less experienced devs and not drive the remaining ones crazy, that remains to be seen.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  If you are being effective at managing a business, you'd be keeping track of employee utilization at some level. What I'm saying is, if your employee utilization suddenly drops for reasons that it won't recover from, you should consider layoffs. If it hasn't dropped, you haven't really replaced a job with AI yet and are putting the cart before the horse.
vsareto 3y ago
Companies have shown they'll do speculative layoffs or hiring. It's possible it's just an excuse in this case, but they might also genuinely believe the AI hype.
stuckinhell 3y ago
The idea seems to be boosted productivity = less people needed in all departments. The only real blocker is waiting on Azure secured GPT endpoints with some contract legalese about protecting our data from our Microsoft reps.

whstl 3y ago

The idea in those cases is not so much about automating jobs, but rather retaining less people but still getting the same productivity because the tools are helping. As an avid user of Copilot and ChatGPT, those tools definitely make me faster. Sure, I gotta review everything it writes. But it's already easier to review Copilot code directly in my VSCode window than that of a junior or mid-level developer in Github. I definitely wouldn't replace an employee with AI tools, though, and I don't see that changing... Also: whether we can replace less experienced devs and not drive the remaining ones crazy, that remains to be seen.

willcipriano 3y ago
If you are being effective at managing a business, you'd be keeping track of employee utilization at some level. What I'm saying is, if your employee utilization suddenly drops for reasons that it won't recover from, you should consider layoffs. If it hasn't dropped, you haven't really replaced a job with AI yet and are putting the cart before the horse.

vsareto 3y ago

Companies have shown they'll do speculative layoffs or hiring. It's possible it's just an excuse in this case, but they might also genuinely believe the AI hype.

stuckinhell 3y ago

The idea seems to be boosted productivity = less people needed in all departments. The only real blocker is waiting on Azure secured GPT endpoints with some contract legalese about protecting our data from our Microsoft reps.