pj_mukh

Agreed, but trucks will remain the workhorse of our freight industry all the way to the last mile in our cities. AI is in a similar position behind the scenes.

I’m happy to hear of design ideas to reduce slop on the internet that doesn’t involve a direct attack on the underlying technology.

AI slop is a misuse of AI. All technologies have misuses. Cars kill 40,000 people a day, but nobody questions them because everybody uses a car everyday.

The fact that AI is quietly automating TPS reports in the background and slowly uplifting productivity metrics making things cheaper for us all is not immediately obvious.

And therefore…gentle reminder.

Gentle reminder that most AI token spend is used for TPS report type writing not Cutting edge fiction writing. Creative writing, or general human-to-human communication was never really the target. It's not surprising the first majority use of this was code.

Endless headlines like, "aArON SORkIn SAYs hE WiLL Never UsE ai to WRite" doesn't change that base fact. No one asked him to, other than clickbait journalists.

If you find this hard to believe, just think about relative market sizes.

>>is really willing to listen to the other side with empathy

Agreed, which is why I explicitly said: "I don't deny that the transition process is traumatic, and there is much we should be doing this time around to assuage the process."

I want to find a way to lead with this sentiment, and I think the focus should be on this. It's hard on people to work through these transitions and lashing out at every new technology only helps temporarily.

>> or have we run out of new jobs to create?

FWIW, I think this is an insane idea and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of humans. We're status seeking creatures. As an AI developer, I'm hoping AI can help us meet everyones needs up the first couple of layers of Maslow's hierarchy. But no way are we solving the former status problems. That will remain and will be creating jobs out the wazoo.

>>” it's automating _knowledge work_. ”

This is vague marketing speak and simply not the reality on the ground. As someone implementing all new workflows, most of the time I’m create new product classes wholesale. sometimes I see people upskilling tasks so the same human can do more.

I can’t think of a single knowledge job where they are removing humans from the loop completely.

Random news headlines of struggling companies doing “AI layoffs” don’t count. No amount of AI can save bad leadership.

Have you talked to a delivery driver in most large cities? Most of them come from countries where they would be a farmer or day laborer.

This ball is going through even your ever-moving goal posts. My statement never claimed people's careers would stay the same and they'd just make more money.

Easy. Name one profession within the North American context that makes less money (inflation adjusted) now than say a farmer, loom weaver or laborer of yore.

A grub hub delivery man is wealthier today than a farmer 100 years ago and that's purely because of two reasons: Technology and Unions :)

>>What about artisanal cobblers vs Southeast Asia Nike sweatshop workers?

No technology involved? Other than I guess tangentially, containerized shipping. I don't see how that analogy applies here at all, every AI workflow I've seen has been either:

a) Totally new thing that was never done before that is possible now and is therefore creating a new class of work

b) Worst case scenario: a whole spate of jobs being consolidated under one person, but its still a human in the end.

So everything I'm seeing is pointing to this being a lamplighter/utility worker situation.

"it is change, therefore it is progress"

I think this is a caricature of the argument. Even my original comment said progress is happening, but not just because some arbitrary change was happening.

Productivity improvements are measurable and they have an outsized impact on the standard of living. Progress is happening.

" will need to find new employment at lower wages "

Why at lower wages? Most automation has led to people transitioning to higher wages. Utility works get paid 10x more than lamplighters. Why would that change here? Your job will have a bigger impact, affect more people, and you'll be doing more with less.

I am not saying all employers will immediately start paying people more, but economically it doesn't make sense that pay will go down.

I am an AI booster, and this is incorrect. Your career will change, and if you change with it, it'll thrive.