It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our tech columnist
Part of the reason for all these new huge models to to replace the senior staff decision making process
CFO small company (25-100 employees):
Whether to take the large new contract requiring hiring 15 people in 60 days -weighing cash flow risk against growth, and whether the pace breaks the culture that’s kept turnover low.
Teacher:
Whether a student’s escalating behavior reflects a home crisis, an undiagnosed learning disability, or a discipline problem -each read would send the family down a very different path (and this is assuming the financial ability to do this even exists).
Non-profit program director:
Whether to accept a large restricted grant that pulls staff off the program that’s actually working, because the funder’s priorities don’t match what the community needs.
Psychiatrist:
Whether worsening symptoms mean treatment -resistant depression needing a medication change, an unaddressed life stressor, or an early sign of bipolar disorder misread as unipolar -each path carries different risk if you’re wrong.
Each of those examples are real life questions that are actively being worked on. It gets worse as those things I listed are “thoughtful, human concerns” that will be solved by AI with no repercussions to the corporations that utilize them. There’s no human responsibility, just a capital responsibility.
…When they are “solved”, that’s the end of the global middle class (US $150k-$1M annual salary).
:) It’s worse than that.
Part of the reason for all these new huge models to to replace the senior staff decision making process
CFO small company (25-100 employees): Whether to take the large new contract requiring hiring 15 people in 60 days -weighing cash flow risk against growth, and whether the pace breaks the culture that’s kept turnover low.
Teacher: Whether a student’s escalating behavior reflects a home crisis, an undiagnosed learning disability, or a discipline problem -each read would send the family down a very different path (and this is assuming the financial ability to do this even exists).
Non-profit program director: Whether to accept a large restricted grant that pulls staff off the program that’s actually working, because the funder’s priorities don’t match what the community needs.
Psychiatrist: Whether worsening symptoms mean treatment -resistant depression needing a medication change, an unaddressed life stressor, or an early sign of bipolar disorder misread as unipolar -each path carries different risk if you’re wrong.
Each of those examples are real life questions that are actively being worked on. It gets worse as those things I listed are “thoughtful, human concerns” that will be solved by AI with no repercussions to the corporations that utilize them. There’s no human responsibility, just a capital responsibility.
…When they are “solved”, that’s the end of the global middle class (US $150k-$1M annual salary).