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If you strongly feel that AI is doing analysis and decision-making at a level which is comparable to human executives, you and some like-minded people could try

by abeppu 11mo ago

If you strongly feel that AI is doing analysis and decision-making at a level which is comparable to human executives, you and some like-minded people could try to form a PE group that takes over firms, replaces a highly compensated CEO with a lower compensation one and an OpenAI subscription, and see how you do. However, only months ago Anthropic published about their autonomous vending machine experiment which had both humorous and interesting but not financially successful. I think maybe we're not to the point where AIs can run businesses. https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1 https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1

fennecbutt 11mo ago
Because it's impossible. CEOs are rooted in place not for skill but because of a web of social connections and class divide.
- tracker1 11mo ago
  It's entirely possible... In fact, I'm pretty sure that there are more than a few very wealthy people willing to place bets on that very thing... maybe not everything, but upwards of 1-3% of their wealth. Now, actually getting in a room and talking to those people and getting in on the execution of that idea... that's a different story.
  - fennecbutt 11mo ago
    Your latter point is my point... It's technically feasible but practically infeasible because parasites won't willingly leave a host.
shermantanktop 11mo ago
The skill ladder for humans assumes CEO functions require higher and better skills than a vending machine manager. But there's no reason to assume that AI capabilities map to those jobs in the same way. It's quite possible that an AI would do a better job at CEO than running a vending machine. And it's quite possible that successful CEOs would not succeed at managing a vending machine. It's almost guaranteed that many will fail, given that some C-level people are selected for risk appetite and social skills over actual business acumen.
- Esophagus4 11mo ago
  I guess you could make the argument that we haven't proven AI can't do a CEO's job until we test it... it would make an interesting experiment, at least. But it also kind of reminds me of the DAO hype a few years ago where people suggested decentralized, blockchain-based organizations could be the org structure of the future. (Not realizing that they were just putting a co-op on a blockchain :) ) Now that I think about it, I do hope someone tests this theory out. It would be very interesting to see. You could probably start by saying "You are the CEO of a lemonade stand. Your goal is to maximize revenue while [constraints]..."
- abeppu 11mo ago
  I encourage you to read the Anthropic blog post, which includes situations like: - hallucinating conversations with fictitious people - role playing as a real person and telling them they are present in meatspace, or claimed to have visited a fictional location - hallucinating details of an account involved in payments - both ignoring lucrative opportunities and accepting loss-making deals - making commitments before having done any research While yes, the skills to run a vending machine and lead a company are not exactly the same, I think the nature of failures discussed means they would likely affect both roles. I think there's every possibility that a present-day AI allowed to act as CEO would make mediocre choices for some period and then decide that it was a character in a scifi novel selling bespoke space-yachts to comet-mining magnates.
surgical_fire 11mo ago
> If you strongly feel that AI is doing analysis and decision-making at a level which is comparable to human executives I am more inclined to believe that than the fable that AI can operate at Junior Engineer level. Especially considering how many times the job of a CEO seem to be to string together a word salad to please shareholders to make line go up. String together word salads to foster a given sentiment is the specialty of AI.

by abeppu 11mo ago

fennecbutt 11mo ago

Because it's impossible. CEOs are rooted in place not for skill but because of a web of social connections and class divide.

tracker1 11mo ago
It's entirely possible... In fact, I'm pretty sure that there are more than a few very wealthy people willing to place bets on that very thing... maybe not everything, but upwards of 1-3% of their wealth. Now, actually getting in a room and talking to those people and getting in on the execution of that idea... that's a different story.
- fennecbutt 11mo ago
  Your latter point is my point... It's technically feasible but practically infeasible because parasites won't willingly leave a host.

shermantanktop 11mo ago

The skill ladder for humans assumes CEO functions require higher and better skills than a vending machine manager. But there's no reason to assume that AI capabilities map to those jobs in the same way. It's quite possible that an AI would do a better job at CEO than running a vending machine. And it's quite possible that successful CEOs would not succeed at managing a vending machine. It's almost guaranteed that many will fail, given that some C-level people are selected for risk appetite and social skills over actual business acumen.

Esophagus4 11mo ago
I guess you could make the argument that we haven't proven AI can't do a CEO's job until we test it... it would make an interesting experiment, at least. But it also kind of reminds me of the DAO hype a few years ago where people suggested decentralized, blockchain-based organizations could be the org structure of the future. (Not realizing that they were just putting a co-op on a blockchain :) ) Now that I think about it, I do hope someone tests this theory out. It would be very interesting to see. You could probably start by saying "You are the CEO of a lemonade stand. Your goal is to maximize revenue while [constraints]..."
abeppu 11mo ago
I encourage you to read the Anthropic blog post, which includes situations like: - hallucinating conversations with fictitious people - role playing as a real person and telling them they are present in meatspace, or claimed to have visited a fictional location - hallucinating details of an account involved in payments - both ignoring lucrative opportunities and accepting loss-making deals - making commitments before having done any research While yes, the skills to run a vending machine and lead a company are not exactly the same, I think the nature of failures discussed means they would likely affect both roles. I think there's every possibility that a present-day AI allowed to act as CEO would make mediocre choices for some period and then decide that it was a character in a scifi novel selling bespoke space-yachts to comet-mining magnates.

surgical_fire 11mo ago

> If you strongly feel that AI is doing analysis and decision-making at a level which is comparable to human executives I am more inclined to believe that than the fable that AI can operate at Junior Engineer level. Especially considering how many times the job of a CEO seem to be to string together a word salad to please shareholders to make line go up. String together word salads to foster a given sentiment is the specialty of AI.