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I love it that there's a "Read AI-generated summary" button on their post about their new AI. I can only expect that the next step is something like "Have your

I love it that there's a "Read AI-generated summary" button on their post about their new AI. I can only expect that the next step is something like "Have your AI read our AI's auto-generated summary", and so forth until we are all the way at Douglas Adams's Electric Monk: > The Electric Monk was a labour-saving device, like a dishwasher or a video recorder. Dishwashers washed tedious dishes for you, thus saving you the bother of washing them yourself; video recorders watched tedious television for you, thus saving you the bother of looking at it yourself. Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe. - from "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

davedigerati 1y ago
Excellent reference Tried to name an AI project at work Electric Monk but too 'controversial' Had to change to Electric Mentor....
mikepurvis 1y ago
SMBC had a pretty great take on this: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/summary https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/summary
- AstroBen 1y ago
  This feels too real to laugh at
- SchemaLoad 1y ago
  There was another comic where one worker uses AI to turn their prompt in to a verbose email, then on the receiver side they use AI to turn the verbose email in to a short summary.
  - drstewart 1y ago
    This one isn't a joke. 90% of documents produced at work are now AI generated, and nobody can keep up with the volume so they just summarise them with AI. What are we even doing.
tonyhart7 1y ago
after outsource developer job, we can outsource all of manager job and leaving CEO with AI agentic code as its servant
- aussieguy1234 1y ago
  Not sure what you mean here, but the only real jobs at risk from AI right now are middle/upper management. Not a single engineer has ever been laid off because of AI. Any company claiming this is the case is trying to cover up bad decisions. "Were automating with AI" sounds better to investors than "We over hired and now need to downsize" or "We made some bad market bets, now need to free up cash flow"
  - stinkbeetle 1y ago
    > Not sure what you mean here, but the only real jobs at risk from AI right now are middle/upper management. > Not a single engineer has ever been laid off because of AI. Any company claiming this is the case is trying to cover up bad decisions. I don't suppose these assertions are based on anything. If "AI" reduces the amount of time an engineer spends writing crud, boilerplate, test cases, random scripts, etc., and they have 5% more time to do other things, then all else being equal a project can be done with 5% fewer engineers. Does AI result in greater productivity for engineers, and does greater productivity per person mean demand can be satisfied with fewer people?
    - aussieguy1234 1y ago
      It does improve productivity, just like a good IDE. But engineers didn't get replaced by IDEs and they haven't yet been replaced by AI. By the time its good enough to replace actual engineers, any job done in front of a computer will be at risk. I'm hoping that will happen at the same time as AI embodiment in robots, then every job will be automated, not just computer based ones.
      - stinkbeetle 1y ago
        Your assertion was not that "an engineer has never been replaced by AI". It is that no engineer has been laid off because of AI. You agree AI improves engineer productivity. So last remaining question is, does greater productivity mean that fewer people are required to satisfy a given demand? The answer is yes of course. So at this point, supporting the assertion requires handwaving about shortages and induced demand and demand for engineers to develop and support AI and so on. Which are all reasonable, but it should become pretty apparent that you can't be confident in an assertion like that. I would say it's pretty likely that AI has resulted in engineers being laid off in specific instances if not the net numbers.
xeonmc 1y ago
Now let’s hope that it will also save labour on resolving cloud infrastructure downtimes too.
egeozcan 1y ago
I'm afraid they will finish "The Salmon of Doubt" with AI and sell it to the future generations with a very small disclaimer, stating it's inspired by Douglas Adams. The possibility was already a topic in the series "Mozart in the jungle" where they made a robot which supposedly finished the Requiem piece by Mozart.
wartywhoa23 1y ago
> I can only expect that the next step is something like "Have your AI read our AI's auto-generated summary" That's basicaly "The Washing Machine Tragedy" by Stanislav Lem in a nutshell.

davedigerati 1y ago

Excellent reference Tried to name an AI project at work Electric Monk but too 'controversial' Had to change to Electric Mentor....

mikepurvis 1y ago

SMBC had a pretty great take on this: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/summary https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/summary

AstroBen 1y ago
This feels too real to laugh at
SchemaLoad 1y ago
There was another comic where one worker uses AI to turn their prompt in to a verbose email, then on the receiver side they use AI to turn the verbose email in to a short summary.
- drstewart 1y ago
  This one isn't a joke. 90% of documents produced at work are now AI generated, and nobody can keep up with the volume so they just summarise them with AI. What are we even doing.

tonyhart7 1y ago

after outsource developer job, we can outsource all of manager job and leaving CEO with AI agentic code as its servant

aussieguy1234 1y ago
Not sure what you mean here, but the only real jobs at risk from AI right now are middle/upper management. Not a single engineer has ever been laid off because of AI. Any company claiming this is the case is trying to cover up bad decisions. "Were automating with AI" sounds better to investors than "We over hired and now need to downsize" or "We made some bad market bets, now need to free up cash flow"
- stinkbeetle 1y ago
  > Not sure what you mean here, but the only real jobs at risk from AI right now are middle/upper management. > Not a single engineer has ever been laid off because of AI. Any company claiming this is the case is trying to cover up bad decisions. I don't suppose these assertions are based on anything. If "AI" reduces the amount of time an engineer spends writing crud, boilerplate, test cases, random scripts, etc., and they have 5% more time to do other things, then all else being equal a project can be done with 5% fewer engineers. Does AI result in greater productivity for engineers, and does greater productivity per person mean demand can be satisfied with fewer people?
  - aussieguy1234 1y ago
    It does improve productivity, just like a good IDE. But engineers didn't get replaced by IDEs and they haven't yet been replaced by AI. By the time its good enough to replace actual engineers, any job done in front of a computer will be at risk. I'm hoping that will happen at the same time as AI embodiment in robots, then every job will be automated, not just computer based ones.
    - stinkbeetle 1y ago
      Your assertion was not that "an engineer has never been replaced by AI". It is that no engineer has been laid off because of AI. You agree AI improves engineer productivity. So last remaining question is, does greater productivity mean that fewer people are required to satisfy a given demand? The answer is yes of course. So at this point, supporting the assertion requires handwaving about shortages and induced demand and demand for engineers to develop and support AI and so on. Which are all reasonable, but it should become pretty apparent that you can't be confident in an assertion like that. I would say it's pretty likely that AI has resulted in engineers being laid off in specific instances if not the net numbers.

xeonmc 1y ago

Now let’s hope that it will also save labour on resolving cloud infrastructure downtimes too.

egeozcan 1y ago

I'm afraid they will finish "The Salmon of Doubt" with AI and sell it to the future generations with a very small disclaimer, stating it's inspired by Douglas Adams. The possibility was already a topic in the series "Mozart in the jungle" where they made a robot which supposedly finished the Requiem piece by Mozart.

wartywhoa23 1y ago

> I can only expect that the next step is something like "Have your AI read our AI's auto-generated summary" That's basicaly "The Washing Machine Tragedy" by Stanislav Lem in a nutshell.