For the back half of the 20th century (what Fortune founder Henry Luce called “The American Century”), MBA and law degree programs were a ticket to a great office job and a path to the American Dream. The 21st century is asking the question: What happens when all those office jobs get automated?..

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    10 hours ago

    Oh it’s like fusion. AGI in 18 months, and in 18 months it’ll be another 18 months, and in another 18 months it’ll be yet another 18 months, and in 50 years it’ll be in 18 months.

    By some of the original estimates we’re supposed to all be dead due to a nuclear war genetically engineered virus released by an AI by now. But nope, were all still here, the lying bastards.

  • tidderuuf@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Remember 18 months ago when all programmers and software engineers were going to be replaced… Still waiting…

  • magnetosphere@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    He has just given himself an eighteen month deadline to succeed or lose his own job. At least, that’s how I’d interpret it if I was in a position to fire his ass.

    • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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      24 hours ago

      Actually, I’d interpret it as him losing his job in 18 months regardless of whether he succeeds or fails, since management is a white-collar job.

      • hector@lemmy.today
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        10 hours ago

        Executives would be the perfect jobs to automate really, there is little they do that computers couldn’t, and they are such high value positions nowadays.

    • [deleted]@piefed.world
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      1 day ago

      I would just fire him now for being obviously incompetent. How can someone competent make such an unrealistic prediction?

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        10 hours ago

        If you work for a large enough organisation it’s almost impossible to get fired. Microsoft like most organisations almost certainly operate on the PIN system, or something equivalent.

        Basically to get fired you have to get yelled at by your manager, then have a documented yelling at from HR, then get another documented yelling at from HR, then get put on report, then fail to improve, and then you’re fired. Each stage has like a 2-month cooldown before the next step.

        Start to finish the whole process can take over a year. Most people quit out of boredom before it gets that far. If you are not literally the most incompetent employee in the department you’re probably safe.

  • mech@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Translation: Dear investors, please keep supplying truck-loads of money for us to burn!
    You’ll get it all back and so much more! We promise, in 18 months!

  • Furbag@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Put it on polymarket or something, I want to make some money off of such stupidity.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      10 hours ago

      The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent. That’s never been more true than now. I think the US bailing out the rich in the last two recessions have perverted the normal risk reward calculations.

  • KraeuterRoy@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    Given Macroslops recent track record with updates I find it more likely that all Win 11 PCs will be bricked within 18 months…

    • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pub
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      15 hours ago

      And then white collar employees will be out of jobs, because they couldn’t do their jobs without a computer. Maybe that’s what he meant.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        8 hours ago

        and it will create a cascading effect, no new graduates into the industry since they would be discouraged from the field altogether or even enroll in a college.

  • manxu@piefed.social
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    I mean, the idea that all white-collar jobs could be automated is obviously stupid. But even if just 50% could be made redundant by increased productivity, or 20%, that would generate enormous downward pressure on wages and salaries and turn this kind of job into college-degree burger flipping, economically.

    The world went through the very similar blue-collar job destruction in the 80s and 90s. Back then, Conservatives decided this was all a Very Good Thing, and Neoliberals shrugged. The made vast swaths of industrial areas suddenly derelict and impoverished. It’s hard to believe that Detroit was once one of the wealthiest cities in America.

    We must tax companies that use AI to reduce workforce to offset cost benefits. Society will have to deal with the suddenly impoverished accountants and lawyers and needs extra revenue.

    The worst part of this AI revolution is that it affects most directly those that have the least experience, as it’s easier to replace an entrant with software. Yet another way young people are screwed, yet another way society absolutely needs to step in to make sure the next generation has a fighting chance.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      8 hours ago

      it would likely generate no-college graduates. even now some schools have enrollment issues, due to job prospects of already graduates telling thier friends/family entering college how bad it is.

      • manxu@piefed.social
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        15 minutes ago

        I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to start college, to take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and not to have the faintest idea if there is actually going to be a job at the end of all that work. At least, where I live college is almost free.

    • E_coli42@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It sounds like your problem is with capitalism and not AI and automation. You don’t like the extra productivity going towards private institutions rather than the workers they displaced or society as a whole, right?

      • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 day ago

        Even with capitalism there is distributivism and there is “neoliberal” capitalism and there is mercantilism and oligopolism. The former two don’t become worse or better from automation. More likely better. The latter two become worse because everything new is power-guarded from benefiting anyone other than elites having power.

        It’s the old question that was being explored in science fiction even before computers. It just took hundred years to reach the problem itself.

      • manxu@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        I would agree. I find that AI does have useful applications, for example in language translation, medical imaging, etc.