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Has an LLM ever gotten something wrong in your experience? Now imagine you get fired because the magic autocomplete machine randomly decided that something you

Has an LLM ever gotten something wrong in your experience? Now imagine you get fired because the magic autocomplete machine randomly decided that something you said had a bad vibe

bko 1y ago
I don't think an LLM has access to payroll or authority to fire anyone. It just flags and people review. Have you worked in a large organization? Have you ever had to fire anyone, or tried to get someone fired? It's not easy.
- voidUpdate 1y ago
  Judging by how many people DOGE has gotten fired, it doesn't seem that hard
  - bko 1y ago
    As of April 1, 2025, approximately 60,000 federal employees have been forcibly terminated or laid off as part of the Trump administration's workforce reduction efforts. These terminations primarily targeted probationary employees—those hired, promoted, or transferred within the last year—who lack full civil service protections. There are about 3m employees so this is about 2%. This is pretty normal course of business for most organizations. Meta laid off 13% of workers in 2022-2023 and an additional 5% in 2025. Other tech companies did similar numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_federal_mass_layoffs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_federal_mas...
    - oyashirochama 1y ago
      The issue is, probationary in Gov doesn't mean what it means in Corporate speak. They do actually have most of the same protections which he ignored illegally.
    - nxobject 1y ago
      Yes and no – nearly half federal government's actual workforce is contractors, and contracts have been cancelled en masse. Here is data from 2017 -- the percentage is nearly 40%. https://www.pogo.org/analysis/contractors-and-true-size-of-government https://www.pogo.org/analysis/contractors-and-true-size-of-g...
    - _DeadFred_ 1y ago
      "promoted, or transferred within the last year" You normally want to keep the people you promote. You also normally want to keep the people you transferred to that new important project you spun up. They reason they fired this specific classification is because it was easier to, not because there was any justification to fire them. I thought above you said it's hard to fire people without reason?
- mrguyorama 1y ago
  > It's not easy. This is pathetic. In the US, nearly everyone is an "At will" employee. It cannot be legally easy to fire someone. You can fire your employees because you don't like their shirt. Do you understand that? There is NO REQUIRED REASON to fire nearly anyone in the US. Meanwhile, for non-at-will employees like federal employees, all you need is "cause", in other words, a bullshit couple "bad" reviews or a PIP or similar. Do you know why governments don't usually fire people? Because they don't exactly have the most productive employees lining up to work for below market rates. The government doesn't fire workers because whoever you replace them with (if you even can at all) will likely be just as bad or worse. It's not because "It's hard" and I'm so sick of the whining.

Has an LLM ever gotten something wrong in your experience? Now imagine you get fired because the magic autocomplete machine randomly decided that something you said had a bad vibe

bko 1y ago

I don't think an LLM has access to payroll or authority to fire anyone. It just flags and people review. Have you worked in a large organization? Have you ever had to fire anyone, or tried to get someone fired? It's not easy.

voidUpdate 1y ago
Judging by how many people DOGE has gotten fired, it doesn't seem that hard
- bko 1y ago
  As of April 1, 2025, approximately 60,000 federal employees have been forcibly terminated or laid off as part of the Trump administration's workforce reduction efforts. These terminations primarily targeted probationary employees—those hired, promoted, or transferred within the last year—who lack full civil service protections. There are about 3m employees so this is about 2%. This is pretty normal course of business for most organizations. Meta laid off 13% of workers in 2022-2023 and an additional 5% in 2025. Other tech companies did similar numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_federal_mass_layoffs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_federal_mas...
  - oyashirochama 1y ago
    The issue is, probationary in Gov doesn't mean what it means in Corporate speak. They do actually have most of the same protections which he ignored illegally.
  - nxobject 1y ago
    Yes and no – nearly half federal government's actual workforce is contractors, and contracts have been cancelled en masse. Here is data from 2017 -- the percentage is nearly 40%. https://www.pogo.org/analysis/contractors-and-true-size-of-government https://www.pogo.org/analysis/contractors-and-true-size-of-g...
  - _DeadFred_ 1y ago
    "promoted, or transferred within the last year" You normally want to keep the people you promote. You also normally want to keep the people you transferred to that new important project you spun up. They reason they fired this specific classification is because it was easier to, not because there was any justification to fire them. I thought above you said it's hard to fire people without reason?
mrguyorama 1y ago
> It's not easy. This is pathetic. In the US, nearly everyone is an "At will" employee. It cannot be legally easy to fire someone. You can fire your employees because you don't like their shirt. Do you understand that? There is NO REQUIRED REASON to fire nearly anyone in the US. Meanwhile, for non-at-will employees like federal employees, all you need is "cause", in other words, a bullshit couple "bad" reviews or a PIP or similar. Do you know why governments don't usually fire people? Because they don't exactly have the most productive employees lining up to work for below market rates. The government doesn't fire workers because whoever you replace them with (if you even can at all) will likely be just as bad or worse. It's not because "It's hard" and I'm so sick of the whining.