Some (many!) profs are using it badly, and students are Not Happy (= asking for their tuition back because they weren’t getting taught 100% by a human). Profs are even using AIs to grade papers.
Some profs think it’s great, and they don’t have to rely on teaching assistants (TAs) as much. Or at all. Wait, TAs are the pipeline for future profs, right? What happens when TAs go away? “It will absolutely be an issue,” said a pro-AI prof. Y’think?
Changes in the workforce are nothing new (elevator operators anyone?). The difference now is I am not hearing of any new replacement jobs for the ones becoming outmoded. No workers will lead to no customers and eventually the whole house of cards collapses.
That is my observation as well. If this truly happens, AI being the majority in the workplace, there will be few non tech or medical fields for anyone. Glad I am retired.
It seems so obvious that all the rhetoric is just that, no substance at all. What confounds me is that the attitudes are pervasive and so unreasonable, illogical. When corporations are treated with all the rights of humans, they do not have to treat humans as people. We cannot compete on any level with a corporation. They want a slave labor force.
I know I sound like a lunatic when I say this, but I really and truly believe that we are in the midst of a genocide. They have destroyed all the legs of the table that insured at least a semblance, albeit a poor one, of keeping our country safe from many harms. They obviously never cared about the poor. Then they stopped caring about the working class. Then they started massive layoffs of the middle class.
Knowledge workers started getting laid off in the 90s. I was in the thick of IT at that time and I watched hoards of excellent technicians and system architects start getting laid off as headcount reductions. No performance basis whatsoever, just numbers on a spreadsheet. Those of us who were retained had to pick up the work of those who were laid off.
Rounds of layoffs transpired almost annually, 10% across the board. Senseless. I remember saying out loud around 2010 when our workforce was so thin, “Who do they think is going to buy their shit when everybody gets fired?” Obviously I was overreacting because here we are. People have managed to keep buying their shit in spite of the risks of losing one’s livelihood. So now they’re coming after the scientists, engineers, radiologists, doctors, lawyers, professionals. That’s who is next up on the chopping block. I’m guessing this is the reason they are so excited about rolling out AI.
So if they kill off enough people, starting with the immigrants and unvaccinated children, then the poor on Medicaid, the elderly in nursing homes, there might just be enough survivors to keep their sick engine running. But those survivors of the impending plagues and diseases will be so desperate, they will do anything just to eat. And so they end up with their slave labor force.
What I don’t get is why they want this. I will never get it. It makes absolutely no sense.
For the super rich few, it’s about bragging rights. Who is at the top of the Forbes lists. Who has the biggest yacht. Who gets to Mars first. Elon Musk’s disdain towards Mackenzie Scott giving away billions every year speaks volumes.
"The rise of corporations like Monsanto ought to be telling you that the 1% view us as little more than a drain on their ability to have all the money. They plan on feeding us their agent orange infused toxic diet until enough of us drop dead, that we can't stop them from taking the rest." - Jstn Green (From the late 80s)
I hope that what is happening to knowledge workers will wake people up to the problems of America’s economy, but I think you are over estimating the role that AI plays in this process for two reasons. First, large language models (LLMs) have been oversold as to what they are capable of. It’s not at all clear that there is a way to avoid hallucinations, and having already been trained on almost all of the available data, they are at best mediocre. I expect a financial shake-out like the dot-com bust.
More generally, machine learning, which has plenty of potential, is next step in the process of automation. Yes, it will replace knowledge worker jobs the way the early automation replaced a lot of manual labor. That in and of itself doesn’t have to be bad. Mind-numbing reparative work is not a lot better than back-breaking manual labor. Automating it increases overall productivity. Germany managed to automate manufacturing without making workers destitute. The problem is US extractive capitalism. If your goal is to extract all available financial value and leave a failing husk of a company, jobs will be destroyed, and whether automation or AI is involved doesn’t really matter. Neither Red Lobster nor Jo Ann’s Fabrics were on the cutting edge of AI, but vampire capitalism took care of them just fine.
The deeper problems with GenAI are starting to become apparent to more people. Also, the companies already stole most of the available training data, so updates will just be around modifying their guess-the-next-word algorithms. I don’t think there will be much growth. I’m pretty sure Sam Altman doesn’t either.
I don't know, babe. America has never been much for compassion. We'll probably just quadruple down on admiration for the 700 rich people left, and continue to hate ourselves and everyone else. And keep on voting MAGA, MAGA, MAGA.
Because we are a heartless, clueless people who are just RIPE for more lies by the party of Dump.
The NYT has an article on the use of AI in universities: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/technology/chatgpt-college-professors.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Hk8.lzPD.ysjYfU2dS-sr&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Some (many!) profs are using it badly, and students are Not Happy (= asking for their tuition back because they weren’t getting taught 100% by a human). Profs are even using AIs to grade papers.
Some profs think it’s great, and they don’t have to rely on teaching assistants (TAs) as much. Or at all. Wait, TAs are the pipeline for future profs, right? What happens when TAs go away? “It will absolutely be an issue,” said a pro-AI prof. Y’think?
Changes in the workforce are nothing new (elevator operators anyone?). The difference now is I am not hearing of any new replacement jobs for the ones becoming outmoded. No workers will lead to no customers and eventually the whole house of cards collapses.
That is my observation as well. If this truly happens, AI being the majority in the workplace, there will be few non tech or medical fields for anyone. Glad I am retired.
It seems so obvious that all the rhetoric is just that, no substance at all. What confounds me is that the attitudes are pervasive and so unreasonable, illogical. When corporations are treated with all the rights of humans, they do not have to treat humans as people. We cannot compete on any level with a corporation. They want a slave labor force.
I know I sound like a lunatic when I say this, but I really and truly believe that we are in the midst of a genocide. They have destroyed all the legs of the table that insured at least a semblance, albeit a poor one, of keeping our country safe from many harms. They obviously never cared about the poor. Then they stopped caring about the working class. Then they started massive layoffs of the middle class.
Knowledge workers started getting laid off in the 90s. I was in the thick of IT at that time and I watched hoards of excellent technicians and system architects start getting laid off as headcount reductions. No performance basis whatsoever, just numbers on a spreadsheet. Those of us who were retained had to pick up the work of those who were laid off.
Rounds of layoffs transpired almost annually, 10% across the board. Senseless. I remember saying out loud around 2010 when our workforce was so thin, “Who do they think is going to buy their shit when everybody gets fired?” Obviously I was overreacting because here we are. People have managed to keep buying their shit in spite of the risks of losing one’s livelihood. So now they’re coming after the scientists, engineers, radiologists, doctors, lawyers, professionals. That’s who is next up on the chopping block. I’m guessing this is the reason they are so excited about rolling out AI.
So if they kill off enough people, starting with the immigrants and unvaccinated children, then the poor on Medicaid, the elderly in nursing homes, there might just be enough survivors to keep their sick engine running. But those survivors of the impending plagues and diseases will be so desperate, they will do anything just to eat. And so they end up with their slave labor force.
What I don’t get is why they want this. I will never get it. It makes absolutely no sense.
It's called, "More for Me!!"
For the super rich few, it’s about bragging rights. Who is at the top of the Forbes lists. Who has the biggest yacht. Who gets to Mars first. Elon Musk’s disdain towards Mackenzie Scott giving away billions every year speaks volumes.
"The rise of corporations like Monsanto ought to be telling you that the 1% view us as little more than a drain on their ability to have all the money. They plan on feeding us their agent orange infused toxic diet until enough of us drop dead, that we can't stop them from taking the rest." - Jstn Green (From the late 80s)
I hope that what is happening to knowledge workers will wake people up to the problems of America’s economy, but I think you are over estimating the role that AI plays in this process for two reasons. First, large language models (LLMs) have been oversold as to what they are capable of. It’s not at all clear that there is a way to avoid hallucinations, and having already been trained on almost all of the available data, they are at best mediocre. I expect a financial shake-out like the dot-com bust.
More generally, machine learning, which has plenty of potential, is next step in the process of automation. Yes, it will replace knowledge worker jobs the way the early automation replaced a lot of manual labor. That in and of itself doesn’t have to be bad. Mind-numbing reparative work is not a lot better than back-breaking manual labor. Automating it increases overall productivity. Germany managed to automate manufacturing without making workers destitute. The problem is US extractive capitalism. If your goal is to extract all available financial value and leave a failing husk of a company, jobs will be destroyed, and whether automation or AI is involved doesn’t really matter. Neither Red Lobster nor Jo Ann’s Fabrics were on the cutting edge of AI, but vampire capitalism took care of them just fine.
Terrific post - and terrifying. Universal basic income makes so much sense. We’re riding a tsunami.
It makes complete sense, which is why politicians (esp. Repubs) oppose it.
The deeper problems with GenAI are starting to become apparent to more people. Also, the companies already stole most of the available training data, so updates will just be around modifying their guess-the-next-word algorithms. I don’t think there will be much growth. I’m pretty sure Sam Altman doesn’t either.
I don't know, babe. America has never been much for compassion. We'll probably just quadruple down on admiration for the 700 rich people left, and continue to hate ourselves and everyone else. And keep on voting MAGA, MAGA, MAGA.
Because we are a heartless, clueless people who are just RIPE for more lies by the party of Dump.
I’ve been saying this will happen for years, yet people kept arguing with me saying THEIR jobs are special and can’t be replaced.