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What really happens: "for some reason" higher up management thinks AI will let idiots run extremely complex companies. It doesn't. What AI actually does is lik

by spwa4 1y ago

What really happens: "for some reason" higher up management thinks AI will let idiots run extremely complex companies. It doesn't. What AI actually does is like any other improved tool: it's a force multiplier. It allows a small number of highly experienced, very smart people, do double or triple the work they can do now. In other words: for idiot management, AI does nothing (EXCEPT enable the competition) Of course, this results in what you now see: layoffs where as always idiots survive the layoffs, followed by the products of those companies starting to suck more and more because they laid off the people that actually understood how things worked and AI cannot make up for that. Not even close. AI is a mortal threat to the current crop of big companies. The bigger the company, the bigger a threat it is. The skill high level managers tend to have is to "conquer" existing companies, and nothing else. With some exceptions, they don't have any skill outside of management, and so you have the eternally repeated management song: that companies can be run by professional managers, without knowing the underlying problem/business, "using numbers" and spreadsheet (except when you know a few and press them, of course it turns out they don't have a clue about the numbers, can't come up with basic spreadsheet formulas) TLDR: AI DOESN'T let financial-expert management run an airplane company. AI lets 1000 engineers build 1000 planes without such management. AI lets a company like what Google was 15-20 years ago wipe the floor with a big airplane manufacturer. So expect big management to come with ever more ever bigger reasons why AI can't be allowed to do X.

jongjong 1y ago
Resonates. I've been thinking about a tech technology bubble (not financial bubble) for years now. Big tech companies have just been throwing engineers at problems for many years and it feels like they completely stopped caring about talent now. Not that they ever really cared deeply, but they did care superficially and that was enough to keep the machines spinning. Now that they have AI, I can see it become an 'idiocy multiplier'. Already software is starting to break in subtle ways, it's slow, laggy, security processes have become a nightmare.
thetjyt468555 1y ago
Perhaps, the higher-ups are so detached from details that they see a comrade in the LLM bullshit-artist.
lelanthran 1y ago
> What AI actually does is like any other improved tool: it's a force multiplier. It allows a small number of highly experienced, very smart people, do double or triple the work they can do now. It's different from other force-multiplier tools in that it cuts off the pipeline of new blood while simultaneously atrophying the experienced and smart people.
jillesvangurp 1y ago
Exactly, and in the business world, those using force multipliers outsmart and outwork their competitors. It's that simple. People are projecting all sorts of hyperbole, morals, outrage, panic, fear, and other nonsense onto LLMs. But in the end they are tools that are available at extremely low cost that do vaguely useful things if you manage to prompt them right. Which isn't all that hard with a little practice. I've been doing that for a few years now, I understand the limitations and strengths. I'm a programmer that also does marketing and sales when needed. LLMs have made the former a lot less tedious and the latter a lot easier. There are still things I have to do manually. But there are also whole categories of things that LLMs do for me quickly, reliably, and efficiently. The impact on big companies is that the strategy of hiring large amounts of people and getting them to do vaguely useful things by prompting them right at great expense is now being challenged by companies doing the same things with a lot less people (see what I did there). LLMs eliminate all the tedious stuff in companies. A lot of admin and legal stuff. Some low level communication work (answering support emails, writing press releases, etc). There's a lot of stuff that companies do or have to do that is not really their core business but just stuff that needs doing. If you run a small startup, that stuff consumes a lot of your time. I speak from experience. Guess what I use LLMs for? All of it. As much as I can. Because that means more quality time with our actual core product. Things are still tedious. But I get through more of it quicker.

by spwa4 1y ago

jongjong 1y ago

Resonates. I've been thinking about a tech technology bubble (not financial bubble) for years now. Big tech companies have just been throwing engineers at problems for many years and it feels like they completely stopped caring about talent now. Not that they ever really cared deeply, but they did care superficially and that was enough to keep the machines spinning. Now that they have AI, I can see it become an 'idiocy multiplier'. Already software is starting to break in subtle ways, it's slow, laggy, security processes have become a nightmare.

thetjyt468555 1y ago

Perhaps, the higher-ups are so detached from details that they see a comrade in the LLM bullshit-artist.

lelanthran 1y ago

> What AI actually does is like any other improved tool: it's a force multiplier. It allows a small number of highly experienced, very smart people, do double or triple the work they can do now. It's different from other force-multiplier tools in that it cuts off the pipeline of new blood while simultaneously atrophying the experienced and smart people.

jillesvangurp 1y ago

Exactly, and in the business world, those using force multipliers outsmart and outwork their competitors. It's that simple. People are projecting all sorts of hyperbole, morals, outrage, panic, fear, and other nonsense onto LLMs. But in the end they are tools that are available at extremely low cost that do vaguely useful things if you manage to prompt them right. Which isn't all that hard with a little practice. I've been doing that for a few years now, I understand the limitations and strengths. I'm a programmer that also does marketing and sales when needed. LLMs have made the former a lot less tedious and the latter a lot easier. There are still things I have to do manually. But there are also whole categories of things that LLMs do for me quickly, reliably, and efficiently. The impact on big companies is that the strategy of hiring large amounts of people and getting them to do vaguely useful things by prompting them right at great expense is now being challenged by companies doing the same things with a lot less people (see what I did there). LLMs eliminate all the tedious stuff in companies. A lot of admin and legal stuff. Some low level communication work (answering support emails, writing press releases, etc). There's a lot of stuff that companies do or have to do that is not really their core business but just stuff that needs doing. If you run a small startup, that stuff consumes a lot of your time. I speak from experience. Guess what I use LLMs for? All of it. As much as I can. Because that means more quality time with our actual core product. Things are still tedious. But I get through more of it quicker.