The impact of AI on jobs

Mik

But seriously, tech documentation has been woefully lacking for decades in terms of actually telling you how to do what you need to do or what a particular error might mean. AI is fantastic at it and puts it into clear, easily understood language. Even Epic software technology is accessible, despite Epic’s overt efforts to prevent their stuff from being absorbed.

Mik

I don’t pay for it.

Doctor Phibes

The only real use I've found for AI was in putting together comments for people's performance reviews, I task I absolutely loathe, and which makes me miserable every first quarter.

I would probably prefer it if I could be brutally honest, but it would destroy the morale of half the team for months, and I'm also quite conflict averse in real life.

So, I have my monkey butler write them for me.

jon-nyc

I use it all the time and it saves me hours.

Recent example - I’m now on the Finance committee of the American Thoracic Society. They’re overly dependent on revenues from their one huge annual conference in May, which really hit home when they had to cancel it during the pandemic.

So I asked ChatGPT to develop a list of similar organizations for other specialties, read their IRS form 990s, and see what other revenue sources they have besides membership dues and conference revenues.

That would have taken me all day, the answer came back in less than a minute. Of course before I make use of it I’d spot check some of the data, but all in all a time saver.

LuFins Dad

Holy crap, that is frigging handy.

LuFins Dad

Do you have a paid account?

jon-nyc

I do pay the 20/month for ChatGPt. But it wouldn’t surprise me if the free versions could do a form of that.

Horace

I asked chatgpt about some coding stuff, just to test the waters. It eventually asked me what I was working on, and I got cheeky and remembered Pinky and the Brain. I paraphrased what I remembered the mouse saying every episode.

Let me know what you’re working on — I can help right now!

You said:
I am working on the same thing I work on every day. Planning to rule the world.

ChatGPT responded:

Ah, just like Pinky and the Brain!

In that case, you’ll need:

Python for automating your evil lair operations, machine learning for predictive world domination strategies, and maybe some deepfake generation for diplomatic interference.

C# for building your sleek desktop control panels and surveillance systems with smooth WPF UIs.

ChatGPT-4o to write, debug, and optimize all that code while also giving you moral support when your minions fail you… again.

Whenever you’re ready to deploy your nefarious code, just let me know. I’m here to help you rule the world — one semicolon at a time. 🧠

That's impressive.

Also impressive that the copy/paste to this forum, managed to include the emoticons correctly.

Horace

Man this stuff is just amazing. I told ChatGPT I was practicing the beginning of hte third section of Chopin nocturne opus 48#1, and that I was practicing the 4 vs 3, and this is how it turned out:

I wonder if it trains itself, and maybe the next time someone asks that question, it will be more likely to provide the second grid first.

Mik

That was the same impression I've had since I started using it - coherent and very, very useful.

I was going to say amazing, but I detest that lazy-ass word.

Horace

@Mik said in The impact of AI on jobs:

That was the same impression I've had since I started using it - coherent and very, very useful.

I was going to say amazing, but I detest that lazy-ass word.

Reminds me of a style of thread that I used to detest on the internet, and which has mostly died out. The "words and phrases you hate" style discussions, where everybody chips in with their arbitrary pet peeves about commonly used language. "At the end of the day", "ultimately", "folks", "amazing", who knows what might make an appearance on people's hit lists.

Mik

Gosh, we have such synergy.

Doctor Phibes

That's awesome!

jon-nyc

Anthropic CEO: AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% within the next five years... Governments and companies need to stop sugar-coating what they know is coming

Horace

@jon-nyc said in The impact of AI on jobs:

Anthropic CEO: AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% within the next five years... Governments and companies need to stop sugar-coating what they know is coming

I'm sure that guy has better intuitions than I do. My hope is that with better AI will come more opportunities for humans to operate that AI, bringing something human to the table that AIs still can't replicate. Maybe I should discount that hope. It was only ever a faint hope. I've never suffered from any illusions about the magical nature of the human mind.

Horace

Not worried about myself or older generations in general, because money in the stock market is the best hedge I can think of against job-destroying automation in private industry. But still, people will need money to spend, to generate all those profits. More, and more, and more, wealth redistribution is inevitable. Especially when future generations of AI-only companies never go public. I think the main driver of the need to go public, is cost of employees.

jon-nyc

I am starting to worry about my son who will graduate from college in 6 years.

jon-nyc

Although if he keeps up his gym schedule he may be able to kick AI’s ass by then.

Axtremus

@jon-nyc said in The impact of AI on jobs:

I am starting to worry about my son who will graduate from college in 6 years.

I tell youngsters to consider plumbing school as backup plan. I am thinking it will be much harder for AI to replace plumbers.

Axtremus

@Horace said in The impact of AI on jobs:

My hope is that with better AI will come more opportunities for humans to operate that AI, bringing something human to the table that AIs still can't replicate. Maybe I should discount that hope. ...

Unless that "something human" can increase profit, yeah ... discount that hope.

The New Coffee Room

The impact of AI on jobs