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Departing Meta staffer posts biting anti-AI video internally amid mass layoffs (www.motherjones.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 12 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

AI could make sense one day if it comes with UBI to compensate its social impact and if it optimizes enough processes to compensate for its ecological footprint. We are far* from this and there's nowhere enough political pressure to make it happen.

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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (7 children)

    You're assuming AI will successfully replace enough jobs to have a social impact. You're buying into the hype. I can't think of a single job it can replace.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    My insurance provider has already replaced all of its customer service staff with AI. As I found out when I tried to ask them a question the other day. I'm changing insurance companies.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago

    If you're talking about the automated phone thing, they've been trying to do that since the 90s. In the past the secret "get me a human" trick was to keep mashing zero till you got a human. Today, you can just keep saying "human" or "I need to speak to a human".

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago

    I can't think of a single job it can replace.

    Me either and I don't think it ever will reach that. We're already seeing diminishing returns.

    The thing is it doesn't need to replace a full job. If it improves productivity by 10% then that's the number that will either lose their job or just not get hired in the first place.

    I'm sure these are very worrying times for folks in college, especially computer science and the arts.

    UBI seems like the only long term solution to me.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    It already has a social impact on the people's whose intellectual property was pirated, the employees traumatized by nsfw filtering tasks and the reduction of white collar junior recruitment (probably non junior too?). I know some people think it's just a bubble, companies are waiting to see what happens and the job market will recover. I am doubtful of it.
    My tech company is pushing us to use it so they provide the top tools. From what I have observed, I have little doubt it will replace a lot of the designing, engineering, coding and communication time. Yes, you will still need some knowledgeable person to guide and review, but less than before. Similarly to how you need less people to build a car today than you did in the 50', and even less for an electric car, because so much more is automated.
    So far automation and the internet did create more better paid jobs than it destroyed, maybe it will happen with "AI" too, but I am skeptical.
    Finally, in my opinion, UBI and work time reduction with equivalent quality of life is a desirable future.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago

    It's going fully replace a LOT of jobs, and as future iterations learn more and more, it will replace even more complex jobs. You are underestimating the Ferengi's compulsion for more wealth. They will let quality slip significantly, if it means higher profits.

    In a few years, they be gaslighting us that double digit unemployment is perfectly normal in a healthy, high-tech society.

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