AI is stealing writers’ words and jobs…

[trappedslider]

This AI stuff keeps reminding me of this scene.

reminds me of this

 

[Scribe]

reminds me of this

Which has always been the thought in the back of my mind. The answer being "No, not really, I had no natural aptitude for art, no schooling, no training, and no years of experience to become an artist."

Now its "Well thats fine, all that investment is irrelevant, just type in a few words and a computer will do it for you."

Thats not great.

 

[lynnfredricks]

I have artists in my family who don't have money and who didn't grow up with money (some of them grew up quite poor). So I don't disagreee on this particular point. But AI is going to largely affect white collar, college educated jobs. The issue people are raising is I think a valid one. People don't really complain when a cashier loses work because of self checkout or when an autoworker loses work because their job is sent overseas or replaced by a machine. And now we are so concerned about AI it is becoming an actual taboo. That isn't happening because of compassion. That is happening because the people who are affected occupy more powerful positions in society. I am not minimizing the effect AI will have on other people like struggling artists. And I am not saying we should in any way be dismissive of peoples' concerns about work. I do think though this also needs to be a part of the conversation if anyone wants to understand why there are segments of society out there who don't seem particularly sympathetic to the problem

The present discussion impacts the white collar, college educated jobs. But its doubly insidious. Here's why:

- The impact of COVID19 has revealed that a lot of those white collar jobs can be done remotely (something many of us already understood, but larger businesses and government did not know how to manage quite as well). The last time that happened, we saw an explosion of outsourcing. We could be facing more rounds of that again.

- White collar, college educated people generate significant tax revenue, so replacing them means a drop in revenue.

- "Good enough" results. AI can produce some good results for a fraction of the cost. The problem with good enough is that makes up enough of incoming revenue to make some types of business no longer profitable. For example, I know some businesses (back in the day) that no longer needed an inside designer because a lot of workers could get by with templates and loads of clip art.

Other jobs that mix complex diagnosis with mixed physical requirements will last longer, but they too will disappear, because of parallel development of technologies that work with AI. Every advancement in technology goes through a phase of figuring out how to combine it with others to maximize its value and find new solutions. Remember when CDROMs replaced floppies? How about when cloud services just meant 'more space'?

Factory automation isn't even close to realizing its full potential with AI, but its clear it is being worked on. Multiple technologies are coming together to allow so many portions of a factory to become extremely mobile robots. The positive of these developments for the USA for example, is that ultimately, its going to bring manufacturing 'home.' The downside is that manufacturing jobs will get a slight burst in numbers, then get far worse than it is now.

Technology improvements are inevitable, but if we've learned anything over the last 50 years, its that we need to manage it in an informed way, rather than just rush to market.

 

[Guest 85555]

The present discussion impacts the white collar, college educated jobs. But its doubly insidious. Here's why:

- The impact of COVID19 has revealed that a lot of those white collar jobs can be done remotely (something many of us already understood, but larger businesses and government did not know how to manage quite as well). The last time that happened, we saw an explosion of outsourcing. We could be facing more rounds of that again.

- White collar, college educated people generate significant tax revenue, so replacing them means a drop in revenue.

- "Good enough" results. AI can produce some good results for a fraction of the cost. The problem with good enough is that makes up enough of incoming revenue to make some types of business no longer profitable. For example, I know some businesses (back in the day) that no longer needed an inside designer because a lot of workers could get by with templates and loads of clip art.

Other jobs that mix complex diagnosis with mixed physical requirements will last longer, but they too will disappear, because of parallel development of technologies that work with AI. Every advancement in technology goes through a phase of figuring out how to combine it with others to maximize its value and find new solutions. Remember when CDROMs replaced floppies? How about when cloud services just meant 'more space'?

Factory automation isn't even close to realizing its full potential with AI, but its clear it is being worked on. Multiple technologies are coming together to allow so many portions of a factory to become extremely mobile robots. The positive of these developments for the USA for example, is that ultimately, its going to bring manufacturing 'home.' The downside is that manufacturing jobs will get a slight burst in numbers, then get far worse than it is now.

Technology improvements are inevitable, but if we've learned anything over the last 50 years, it’s that we need to manage it in an informed way, rather than just rush to market.

Sure. I am not saying this will only affect white collar workers in the long term. Like I said, we should be worried about job losses regardless.

I heard an economist on the radio the other day talking about steel manufacturing jobs that might be jeopardized by a company outside the US purchasing the company. This isn’t an issue I know a whole lot about. His points could have been quite valid, but a lot of the conversation he was demonstrating very little concern about job loss. He dismissed worries that it would happen but also reasoned that even if it did, the company paying lower wages overseas would mean cheaper cars, which was better for everyone. I understood that part of his argument. I just felt had this been an institution that employed thousands of economists being sold, he would have been singing a very different tune. My point is just that this is why some people are not being as concerned about AI. Because it feels like suddenly now that white collar jobs are at risk, it is extremely important. But we have watched unskilled and blue collar jobs go with very little fanfare. I do agree with your points. I just think is an important part of the conversation

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Just because I have a different perspective on the world than you do, does not mean I'm myopic.

Sure, the fact you have a different perspective doesn’t mean that.

It’s the specific perspective you have that is an issue, not the fact that it diverges from my own.

The rest of the ranting in the quoted post is just “everyone else secretly thinks like me” nonsense, and excuses to be callously indifferent to suffering of people because you don’t know them.

Not caring at all about anyone you don’t know is an unethical worldview.

As for the spurious notion that anyone who “really” cares wouldn’t be on the forums…I have to assume you can reread what you wrote and see the logical leap you’re making there.

 

[CapnZapp]

It seems you have never heard the expression "struggling artist."

Many more people than artists are struggling. And this isn't about people dreaming about becoming artists. This is about people expressing entitlement to a job security not many others are afforded.

Remember, this thread is titled "AI is stealing writers’ words and jobs..."

If all it discussed was legal matters, that'd be fine. (It still isn't "theft" but I digress).

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how it pretty heavily encourages you to feel resentment that automation comes for this particular job sector for once.

And that's too rich for me. So here I am to provide a bit of perspective:

• the fact we now can make images using nothing but words is a huge step forward for humanity; arguably far greater than automatic lighting of gas lamps or whatever. Someone compared the dawn of generative AI to the printing press... and all you want to bitch about is how some jobs are lost?
• whenever low education low income people are made redundant that's not a problem worth discussing but now somehow it is...? Don't you see how bad that makes y'all look?

 

[CapnZapp]

No, but find that other way and at least we have a discussion.

No. I'm quite capable of having this discussion already today.

 

[CapnZapp]

Which has always been the thought in the back of my mind. The answer being "No, not really, I had no natural aptitude for art, no schooling, no training, and no years of experience to become an artist."

Now its "Well thats fine, all that investment is irrelevant, just type in a few words and a computer will do it for you."

Thats not great.

It is always great that we can replace several years of education and practice by the push of a button.

Or perhaps you wish we go back to ancient times where everything that needed to be done had to be done by hand?

 

[CapnZapp]

Technology improvements are inevitable, but if we've learned anything over the last 50 years, its that we need to manage it in an informed way, rather than just rush to market.

If we've learned anything over the last 50 years, its that we never manage it in an informed way, and rather just rush it to market.

And you know what? We're still fine.

So maybe, just maybe, this idea to manage it in "an informed way" is the flaw in your logic?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

- The impact of COVID19 has revealed that a lot of those white collar jobs can be done remotely (something many of us already understood, but larger businesses and government did not know how to manage quite as well).

It also demonstrated how little office time is actually spent doing productive work, as opposed to in unproductive meetings, playing office politics, watercooler chats, and, of course, travelling.