There’s a sub plot in Asimov’s foundation books that points out the absurdity of a certain kind of academia that does not research for itself, it merely consumes other people’s work and spits out it’s own flawed conclusions without any interaction with the real world.
Anytime I hear about AI, I think about that story.
Edit: perhaps ironically I just used AI to find the character’s name Lord Dorwin, a symbol of stagnation.
the-hundredth-idiot on
From the article:
“We suspect some firms are trying to dress up layoffs as a good news story rather than bad news, such as past over-hiring.”
The primary motivation for this rebranding of job cuts appears to be investor relations. The report notes that attributing staff reductions to AI adoption “conveys a more positive message to investors” than admitting to traditional business failures, such as weak consumer demand or “excessive hiring in the past.” By framing layoffs as a technological pivot, companies can present themselves as forward-thinking innovators rather than businesses struggling with cyclical downturns.
[deleted] on
[deleted]
hubec on
Interesting point in the article: If AI was actually replacing fired workers per worker productivity would be going up – It’s going down. Companies are branding layoffs as AI transition to mask miss-management during a down turn.
Let’s say you run a company that’s sucking wind because you’re horrible at your job: Do a few rounds of layoffs – but instead of admitting you’re a dipshit, buy a crap-ton of co-pilot licenses and get your PR department to spew AI-AI-AI-AI.
merRedditor on
AI layoffs miss the factor in which the point of most jobs is keeping people attached to the system and too busy to revolt.
Bogdan_X on
If you say you fired people because of your bad management and wrong planning, profit drops. If you say you fired people because of AI, profit grows.
srakken on
You still need technical people. AI can vastly improve productivity but you still need people who can understand the outputs.
Think about it you build something entirely using AI, but no one knows how it actually works. What happens if it breaks and no one knows how to fix it and the AI is hallucinating? It is a tool that needs to be used by talented people. The real risk here is the stagnation of senior technical knowledge as people retire.
Head count reductions might be possible or instead productivity and outputs are vastly improved. Take your pick.
Next_Tap_5934 on
99% of software developers have been saying AI is just a scapegoat for being able to do layoff for reason that have nothing to do with AI
pianoblook on
AI has proven to be incredibly powerful at 3 things:
1. biomedical research
2. programming & math
3. pumping out useless slop for corporate profits
liquidpele on
Duh… been saying this for over a year, but calling it a “darker reality” is hyperbole, it’s just business as usual this shit happens all the time. Next they’ll act surprised that companies outsourced and then announced that they’re bringing jobs back like they’re just pro-America instead of the fact that the outsourcing was an abject disaster.
ASEdouard on
At this point in time, yes it clearly seems to be the case.
Educational-Cry-1707 on
At this point I’m convinced none of the companies are actually using AI for much but they’re all convinced everyone else is and are scared shitless that they’ll be left out. They’re looking for problems to which AI can be a solution, even if there’s better solutions out there.
ivecompletelylostit on
They weren’t fooling anyone but the biggest idiots alive the whole time they’ve been saying this
uwwuwwu on
AI is the scapegoat for all the problems in overconsumption and capitalism . The problem child in a shit family system lol
SHODAN117 on
This is obvious. Everyone knew this already. They did it with RTO.
PharmerDale on
“Never let a disaster go to waste”
Material-Macaroon298 on
If true though this is bullish for the labour class.
mq2thez on
Shocking no one with a brain
ThrowawayAl2018 on
You can have AI or you can have better quality, however you can’t have both!
AI is a hype, a scapegoat used to cover up the bad corporate policies of over hiring. Doesn’t mean that things are getting more efficient since AI doesn’t know how to think for itself with the training dataset (ie: hallucinating is inherent in the models).
pixelfishes on
‘AI’ is the new ‘Remote Work is killing productivity’ bogeyman being used for layoffs now. While there are plenty of jobs that AI/LLMs will capture across multiple industries it’s not as widespread as the corporate overlords would have us believe.
ragnore on
Anyone actually using AI knows what a technical marvel and also what a stupid child it is. Despite the hype, it’s barely being utilized in everyday businesses outside of tech (and even within it), and when it is, it’s done in such a manner that it leaves the user worse off for many real tasks. Not to mention the AI companies themselves are highly volatile, providing good outputs one day and garbage the next, if their APIs don’t go down suddenly.
Workflows and best practices surrounding AI will take a few years to mature, and even longer in slower-changing sectors. It predicts tokens eerily well—that does not translate to replacing labor.
Any labor market fluctuations we’re seeing today have 0% to do with AI providing meaningful productivity gains, and are caused entirely by the economic chaos being sewn by a certain someone and companies laying off their hugely bloated Covid hires under the guise of productivity gains that don’t exist.
Lowetheiy on
The only people losing jobs due to AI will be the dinosaurs who refuse to adapt and learn new technology.
ThatsAllFolksAgain on
I don’t understand all the people saying no one is using AI. Almost everyone I know who works in the white collar jobs use AI for practically every task. Writing emails, making presentations, help with coding, just name it and everything is AI assisted. The job freezes are not a joke. Old people are gradually being let go and they don’t want to hire anyone fresh out of college. It will take some time for them to figure out how many people are actually needed to get the work done and once they figure that out, job losses are coming. Maybe they’ll blunt the job losses by slowly letting people go so it won’t cause a mass panic. But the bottom line is things are not likely to get better.
capsteve on
Interesting 🤔
VVrayth on
Shocked Pikachu face.gif
MovieGuyMike on
It’s the economic uncertainty thanks to the Trump economy. It’s cutting into margins and investments. Companies can’t say that out loud because this administration has demonstrated they will retaliate.
28 Comments
*I’m shocked. Shocked!*
*….well, not that shocked.*
I’m probably not going to explain this well:
There’s a sub plot in Asimov’s foundation books that points out the absurdity of a certain kind of academia that does not research for itself, it merely consumes other people’s work and spits out it’s own flawed conclusions without any interaction with the real world.
Anytime I hear about AI, I think about that story.
Edit: perhaps ironically I just used AI to find the character’s name Lord Dorwin, a symbol of stagnation.
From the article:
“We suspect some firms are trying to dress up layoffs as a good news story rather than bad news, such as past over-hiring.”
The primary motivation for this rebranding of job cuts appears to be investor relations. The report notes that attributing staff reductions to AI adoption “conveys a more positive message to investors” than admitting to traditional business failures, such as weak consumer demand or “excessive hiring in the past.” By framing layoffs as a technological pivot, companies can present themselves as forward-thinking innovators rather than businesses struggling with cyclical downturns.
[deleted]
Interesting point in the article: If AI was actually replacing fired workers per worker productivity would be going up – It’s going down. Companies are branding layoffs as AI transition to mask miss-management during a down turn.
Let’s say you run a company that’s sucking wind because you’re horrible at your job: Do a few rounds of layoffs – but instead of admitting you’re a dipshit, buy a crap-ton of co-pilot licenses and get your PR department to spew AI-AI-AI-AI.
AI layoffs miss the factor in which the point of most jobs is keeping people attached to the system and too busy to revolt.
If you say you fired people because of your bad management and wrong planning, profit drops. If you say you fired people because of AI, profit grows.
You still need technical people. AI can vastly improve productivity but you still need people who can understand the outputs.
Think about it you build something entirely using AI, but no one knows how it actually works. What happens if it breaks and no one knows how to fix it and the AI is hallucinating? It is a tool that needs to be used by talented people. The real risk here is the stagnation of senior technical knowledge as people retire.
Head count reductions might be possible or instead productivity and outputs are vastly improved. Take your pick.
99% of software developers have been saying AI is just a scapegoat for being able to do layoff for reason that have nothing to do with AI
AI has proven to be incredibly powerful at 3 things:
1. biomedical research
2. programming & math
3. pumping out useless slop for corporate profits
Duh… been saying this for over a year, but calling it a “darker reality” is hyperbole, it’s just business as usual this shit happens all the time. Next they’ll act surprised that companies outsourced and then announced that they’re bringing jobs back like they’re just pro-America instead of the fact that the outsourcing was an abject disaster.
At this point in time, yes it clearly seems to be the case.
At this point I’m convinced none of the companies are actually using AI for much but they’re all convinced everyone else is and are scared shitless that they’ll be left out. They’re looking for problems to which AI can be a solution, even if there’s better solutions out there.
They weren’t fooling anyone but the biggest idiots alive the whole time they’ve been saying this
AI is the scapegoat for all the problems in overconsumption and capitalism . The problem child in a shit family system lol
This is obvious. Everyone knew this already. They did it with RTO.
“Never let a disaster go to waste”
If true though this is bullish for the labour class.
Shocking no one with a brain
You can have AI or you can have better quality, however you can’t have both!
AI is a hype, a scapegoat used to cover up the bad corporate policies of over hiring. Doesn’t mean that things are getting more efficient since AI doesn’t know how to think for itself with the training dataset (ie: hallucinating is inherent in the models).
‘AI’ is the new ‘Remote Work is killing productivity’ bogeyman being used for layoffs now. While there are plenty of jobs that AI/LLMs will capture across multiple industries it’s not as widespread as the corporate overlords would have us believe.
Anyone actually using AI knows what a technical marvel and also what a stupid child it is. Despite the hype, it’s barely being utilized in everyday businesses outside of tech (and even within it), and when it is, it’s done in such a manner that it leaves the user worse off for many real tasks. Not to mention the AI companies themselves are highly volatile, providing good outputs one day and garbage the next, if their APIs don’t go down suddenly.
Workflows and best practices surrounding AI will take a few years to mature, and even longer in slower-changing sectors. It predicts tokens eerily well—that does not translate to replacing labor.
Any labor market fluctuations we’re seeing today have 0% to do with AI providing meaningful productivity gains, and are caused entirely by the economic chaos being sewn by a certain someone and companies laying off their hugely bloated Covid hires under the guise of productivity gains that don’t exist.
The only people losing jobs due to AI will be the dinosaurs who refuse to adapt and learn new technology.
I don’t understand all the people saying no one is using AI. Almost everyone I know who works in the white collar jobs use AI for practically every task. Writing emails, making presentations, help with coding, just name it and everything is AI assisted. The job freezes are not a joke. Old people are gradually being let go and they don’t want to hire anyone fresh out of college. It will take some time for them to figure out how many people are actually needed to get the work done and once they figure that out, job losses are coming. Maybe they’ll blunt the job losses by slowly letting people go so it won’t cause a mass panic. But the bottom line is things are not likely to get better.
Interesting 🤔
Shocked Pikachu face.gif
It’s the economic uncertainty thanks to the Trump economy. It’s cutting into margins and investments. Companies can’t say that out loud because this administration has demonstrated they will retaliate.
Duh. This has been exceedingly obvious.