As a systemically unemployed zoomer, yes. Although not so much AI as automation.
The only times AI actually works is in fields like health insurance claim processing, where the goal is provide the worst service possible.
AI isn’t a magic human replacement in most fields at the moment.
What language models allow is automate tasks that couldn’t be automated before. For example, if you spread a 10% time gain from the people who are already working, you are going to hire 10% fewer people.
I’ll say here, where no one knows me, that GenAI tools have probably cut my workload by half. Probably more if you discount the amount of time I spend staying ahead of folks. I can also say that none of my teams have had additional any headcount approved in the last 2 years.
That honestly sucks as a zoomer. I will say that the people we have added to teams have all came from internal promotions or acquiring small companies. Maybe start a passion project company and start building something even if it doesn’t make money and is mostly on paper.
cut my workload by half
i haven’t found much use in these tools just yet. what do you use it for that makes you so efficient?
I’ve definitely cut down a lot of my workload with them.
I have data between multiple external systems I need to manage, so I built some tools to automate it.
Since the LLM agent can do follow up queries against the APIs independently it excels at cross referencing between systems. This work is impossible to know beforehand, so you can’t traditionally automate it.
So what used to waste several hours a week of pulling data, searching with crap search tools, pulling data again, etc. In 12 browser tabs is now just an LLM doing a couple dozen tool calls.
That leaves me to just take the output and act on it.
I’ve done tests and it is accurate and reproducible enough. Plus I already have a good sense of when such info exists, so if it is wrong I can trivially redirect it.
I have to do a lot of slides and emails. So I can dump in massive email threas, tell it the outcome and address every concern in my writing style. Then I read it over, delete parts and hit send. Same with prepping presentations. I can say recap the quarter’s highlights for xyz, pick a few and move on. I still have to present them and read things, but that’s getting to be the large part of the job.
interesting, i will keep it in mind next time i need to do a stupid report again!
I’m going to let you in on a little secret here.
The people you are telling about this are not the people who have the power to do anything about it.
So all you have accomplished by sharing this is making people who are completely powerless feel bad.
Congratulations, you’ve made things worse.
People who have don’t have power shouldn’t be talking about bad things they can’t change, because you’ll make other powerless people feel bad. Powerless people should just shut up.
Isn’t that basically what you’re saying?Strong disagree. There is a lot we can do all about it. Starting with voting and promoting politicians who want to do something about it (yes, voting matters). Then, starting a discussion about the social use of work and labor. If these entry-level jobs can be automated, what quality were they exactly testing new hires for? Let’s make it an interviewing step instead.
Maybe make the entry level job one hierarchical layer higher. Instead of data entry, manage a fleet of data-entry AI agents.
And, also, wonder about the place of labor in our society. If not directly talking about basic income, talk about funding for more education, more training, on of the various modalities that exist: private or public funding, private or public college, in-company training, training through non-profits, etc.
The AI wave comes with huge social implication, and it is collectively that we will decide whether it makes individual situations worse or better.
I think you misunderstand.
I’'m not saying that “it is impossible for something to be done”.
I am saying that, “when you are communicating it to the masses in this method, you are not communicating the people who have the ability to actually do something about it”.
It’s a problem with the mainstream.
We would all have to work together to change its course, and even something as simple as me saying that “we are not the people who can do anything about it” gets opposition.
You would not work with me, therefore, there is no “we” to fight against this.
but these people are able to do something about it. its just that it needs to be a collective effort, not and individual one.
The fact that you are arguing with me about this is evidence that I am correct.
it really doesn’t. but the fact you are arguing with me makes me correct!
Fine then.
Prove me wrong.
Do something, anything at all about it, in real life and not just on the internet.
And get, like, I don’t know, five people to do it with you.
Do that much, and I’ll admit I’m wrong.
I mean, I try to be a reasonable person. I tend to be calm and collected and to withhold judgment until all of the information is in.
In this case, all of the information is in.
People will bitch about it forever on the internet, but will never, ever do anything in real life about it.
5 people is not a really huge ask.
Get five people to congregate with you at the footsteps of a company that is using AI to make employment decisions and protest it.
That seems like a reasonable thing, right? And five people is enough to make a hubbub about it, at least with the company, right? So that’s a reasonable metric, right?
But if you can’t do that much, which is reasonably attainable for an individual, then you’ll just have to accept that I’m right, no matter who upvotes or downvotes who in the thread.
we are my dude. in my country many organizations are already trying to pressure for some datacenters not to be placed here, like big tech is planning to.
but we can’t really do it in the us in their people’s behalf, that gets complicated. hundreds of years worth of theory and examples on how it works and how to say no.
Edward snowden can’t just bomb the NSA. But at least he left his family and nationality to expose it.
