Part 1 of a 3 part series
People don’t know what to make of Artificial intelligence (AI). Many have engaged with AI, and it is becoming more of a household conversation, across all demographics. I find it interesting how people relate to AI. On the one hand people find it very useful and on the other hand, people are concerned about it’ ability to outthink and outdo them in certain tasks.
So is humanity creating its own replacement? That depends on who you ask and what tasks you are referring too.
One of the biggest industries to have seen AI impact is that of the information technology world, on which the below article is written. Below are excerpts from the article written by Kai Riemer and Sandra Peter, The Conversation.
The concern.
Meta and Microsoft are the latest software companies to announce big cuts to their global workforce. Both companies are also making big investments in (AI).
The link seems obvious. Meta’s chief people officer, Janelle Gale, said the job cuts – about 10% of staff or almost 8,000 workers – serve to “offset the other investments we’re making”. Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has previously spoken about a “major AI acceleration” with spending in excess of US$115bn planned this year.
Microsoft is also betting big on AI. The company also just announced early retirement packages for about 7% of its US workforce.
How AI is viewed.
What is happening here? How we understand these layoffs depends on what we think AI is, and what implications it will have. Broadly speaking, there are three ways of looking at it: that AI is superintelligence, that it’s mostly hype, and that it’s a useful tool.
Super intelligence
In the first view, AI is emerging superintelligence. People think of it as a new kind of mind, that learns, reasons, and will soon outperform humans at most cognitive tasks (In Reality it is not).
But the leap to “all white-collar work will be automated” is a big one. The view that AI is a kind of universal mind that learns and improves itself is far-fetched.
And most professional work is far messier than coding: ambiguous briefs, competing stakeholder interests, outputs that are hard to verify, and shifting success criteria. Coding may be a canary in the coal mine, but coal mines and boardrooms are very different places.
AI hype
The second view sees the conversation around AI as mostly hype. AI is being invoked as cover. Companies that hired aggressively during the pandemic boom, and now face financial pressure, are blaming AI as the more palatable explanation. We don’t know in detail the make-up of the present job cuts, so Meta may just be repackaging earlier failures as AI-driven productivity gains.
Another cynical reading suggests that laying off workers in the name of AI is a way to drive up stock prices. When Block invoked AI and cut nearly 4,000 roles, its stock jumped the following day.
Announce AI-driven layoffs and you may find investors reward you for being future-focused. It is a historically familiar trick: technology has repeatedly served as convenient cover for financial restructuring.
Are layoffs a way to make staff use AI?
The third view is more nuanced. It sees AI as a powerful tool, but one that companies will need to transform themselves to take advantage of.
This has implications for what jobs are needed and in what quantities. We think this view has the most merit. On this reading, the tech leaders believe AI will change how software gets built. But they don’t know exactly how.
So, they do what tech companies often do when faced with uncertainty: they create pressure. They cut headcount staff, expect those remaining to produce just as much as before, and force teams to find ways to meet those expectations using AI.
It’s not a bet that AI will do everything, but that the pressure will force humans to work out how to use AI to increase productivity.
We are learning and growing.
AI is not an existential threat to everyone’s livelihood or the start of the terminator movies through prophesy (that I am aware of). Rather something that is built on the shoulders of Google search engines and software demands made by humans. In other words, it’s not something new, it’s something that is the next step on what currently exists.
It is not something to be feared, but it is something that needs to be understood. AI is something that will become more entrenched into our lives and understanding this will be one of the skills that benefits your life, like driving a car. Sure, you could get around on public transport, but to have your own transport is in most cases a huge quality of life improvement. But you had to learn how to drive a car. We need to take the time to learn about AI and see how it can benefit us.
I can tell you AI has disbenefits that should be noted. In the process of my studies our collage has noted reliance on AI and lack of critical thinking and students losing their academic voice through lazy use of AI. Ultimately, it’s a tool. You can use a hammer to build a house or knock one down. That is up to the one who wields it. Go explore with intrigue.
Original article here https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/tech/meta-and-microsoft-have-joined-the-tech-layoff-tsunami/
(This article was not written using AI 😊)
