AI is just a tool that big tech uses to tip the balance of society and take more than their fair share of wealth.
Additionally, like it or not there will also be permanent job destruction / replacement with many naïve AI supporters suggesting utopian nonsense such as "UBI" for everyone (it has never worked nor was it economically sustainable).
Let's call it for what it really is: tools such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Devin (Cognition), Computer Use (Anthropic) and Fin (Intercom) are here to eliminate jobs. The worst part is that there is almost no alternative for those lost jobs and they are not hiding that fact.
If having less jobs is so great and "benefits humanity", then why are there more folks here and across the world worried about their future job prospects?
First ChatGPT came for journalists and we said "Learn to code".
Then Gen-AI image generators came for digital artists and we said "Learn to code".
Then music generators came for musicians and voice actors and we said "Learn to code".
Then Copilot and Devin came for senior software engineers and AI engineers are now telling everyone:
Let's call it for what it really is: tools such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Devin (Cognition), Computer Use (Anthropic) and Fin (Intercom) are here to eliminate jobs. The worst part is that there is almost no alternative for those lost jobs and they are not hiding that fact.
Absolutely true, but it's more than that. AI itself is ultimately the next step towards completely autonomous technology. Big tech companies and programmers are just taking advantage of the fact that technology still needs us. They are using that to get ahead in life while putting the entire planet at risk.
Maybe they will get exponentially better, I can't predict the future. Code generating software with a UI isn't exactly a new idea though, we said the same about Frontpage.
Indeed, but as with all unchecked developments, they eventually improve and sometimes they can improve too much. Like survellance tech -- too much improvement in my opinion. So when it comes to something really important like the future of jobs, perhaps we should be more cautious.
I'm definitely okay with this although historically, none of the technological revolution did actually collapse the employment market, they freed up future jobs which were impossible economically previously.
Not saying that can't happen, there's no hard science about this but when we experienced as many technological revolutions as we have, betting the opposite of what happened previously might not be the most likely option.
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Additionally, like it or not there will also be permanent job destruction / replacement with many naïve AI supporters suggesting utopian nonsense such as "UBI" for everyone (it has never worked nor was it economically sustainable).
Let's call it for what it really is: tools such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Devin (Cognition), Computer Use (Anthropic) and Fin (Intercom) are here to eliminate jobs. The worst part is that there is almost no alternative for those lost jobs and they are not hiding that fact.
If having less jobs is so great and "benefits humanity", then why are there more folks here and across the world worried about their future job prospects?
First ChatGPT came for journalists and we said "Learn to code".
Then Gen-AI image generators came for digital artists and we said "Learn to code".
Then music generators came for musicians and voice actors and we said "Learn to code".
Then Copilot and Devin came for senior software engineers and AI engineers are now telling everyone:
Learn to cope, this is for "humanity"
Absolutely true, but it's more than that. AI itself is ultimately the next step towards completely autonomous technology. Big tech companies and programmers are just taking advantage of the fact that technology still needs us. They are using that to get ahead in life while putting the entire planet at risk.
Copilot and Devin never came for senior software engineers, you can't give that to a non-coder and expect it to do the work.
Due to the way we use code nowadays, I'm convinced we would probably replace the CEO itself before the devs anyways.
True now, but not true in 10 years. Or 20 years. The entire point is the total end result, and that's what we should be concerned about.
Maybe they will get exponentially better, I can't predict the future. Code generating software with a UI isn't exactly a new idea though, we said the same about Frontpage.
Indeed, but as with all unchecked developments, they eventually improve and sometimes they can improve too much. Like survellance tech -- too much improvement in my opinion. So when it comes to something really important like the future of jobs, perhaps we should be more cautious.
I'm definitely okay with this although historically, none of the technological revolution did actually collapse the employment market, they freed up future jobs which were impossible economically previously.
Not saying that can't happen, there's no hard science about this but when we experienced as many technological revolutions as we have, betting the opposite of what happened previously might not be the most likely option.
Look, an LLM is a tool to transform a string in one language into a string in another. We have a name for that: a compiler.
LLMs are magical but all that they mean for SWEs is that there's one more compiler to use - and this one is unreliable and opaque to boot.
Until AGI is solved, software engineers are safe. Our job is the most fundamentally human of all: telling the machine what to do.