As we roll out more generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done

we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce

Are we done for?

  • SparrowHawk@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    yes, create a legion of angry, unemployed/unemployable people, that will go well for the capitalist system

    • atlien51@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Don’t worry, they’ve got the army + police at their feet to keep people in line!

      unless the public are well organized

  • andallthat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 month ago

    Quick recap for future historians:

    • for a really brief part of its history, humanity tried to give kindness a go. A half-hearted attempt at best, but there were things like DEI programs, for instance, attempting to create a gentler, more accepting world for everyone. At the very least, trying to appear human to the people they managed was seen as a good attribute for Leaders.

    • some people felt that their God-given right to be assholes to everyone was being taken away (it’s right there in the Bible: be a jerk to your neighbor, take away his job and f##k his wife)

    • Assholes came back in full force, with a vengeance. Not that they had ever disappeared, but now they relished the opportunity to be openly mean for no reason again. Once again, True Leaders were judged by their ability to drain every drop of blood from their employees and take their still-beating hearts as an offering to the Almighty Shareholders.

  • vane@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Ah yes those famous “Agents”. They will of course write themselves, adapt themselves to changing environment and run on their own without any supervision.

  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    How kind of him to tell his staff to look elsewhere for jobs so far in advance. Polish that resume team!

  • alehel@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    I get the feeling that simply working at Amazon means your job is at risk.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yet they will never be replaced, sadly.

      They get all of the credit and none of the blame.

  • Zenith@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Amazon is currently hemorrhaging executive level and above engineers. Amazon will have to be replacing these jobs with AI cause every one of value has already left/is leaving and filling those jobs with qualified people at that level is actually a lot more difficult than more junior level positions.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    It takes a special type of shithead to threaten peoples’ jobs to their face without even knowing what the fuck they are talking about.

    • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      This is going to be the threat that EVERY employee will hear over the next several years, whenever they ask for any sort of a raise, promotion, etc. “Just be glad we don’t replace you with AI.”

  • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Time for the AI teams to suddenly have tech issues.

    “Sorry, the whole codebase is just gone! We have no idea what happened!”

    “Must have been the S3 storage”

    • qyron@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Stupid question but what is stopping the software engineers to poison the well?

      Insert malicious code, self destructing functions, have entire batches of code lost or corrupted, hardware damaged, etc?

      • pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Stupid question but what is stopping the software engineers to poison the well?

        Great question. I agree with other responses - it happens, and there’s motive to hush it up, so we tend not to hear about it.

        It’s also just really hard to tell the difference after the fact between “Dave sabotaged us” and “no one knows how to do what Dave did”.

        But I’ll add - there’s currently little need motive sabotage AI implementations. Current generation AI is largely unable to deliver on what is promised, in a business sense. It does cool but useless things, like quickly generating low maturity code, and writing a summary any seven year old could have wtitten.

        Current generation AI adds very little business value, while creating substantial risks. Nevermind that no one knows how Dave worked, now no one knows how our AI works, and it’s so eager to please everyone that it lies at critical moments.

        Companies playing around with current generation AI to boost next quarter’s stocks will hit plenty of “find out” soon enough, with nothing beyond the natural consequences of ignoring their own engineers advice.

        All that to say - if we see what looks like sabotage, it may well just be the natural consequences of stupidity.

        • qyron@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          Small acts of sabotage are easy to write off to causality, if well planned.

  • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    Oh, gimme a break.

    This jerk is telling his workers that all their jobs are in jeopardy all the time, year after year. No news here. It’s just his thing.

    Probably he’s trying to keep up the fear - booo hooooo…

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Seriously, there’s a reason there’s been horror stories of people crying at their desks at Amazon since the early 2000’s. Because they’ve always treated everyone like they’re completely expendable at all times. Horrific work culture.

    • Obinice@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      1 month ago

      But why? Why make them scared they’ll lose their jobs at any moment Vs feeling secure?

      If they’re scared, they’ll be seeking better employment, applying for other jobs whilst working this highly unstable one. Probably reduced productivity too, I wouldn’t be as productive under that sort of negative environment.

      Make them feel valued and secure though and they won’t leave, there’ll be less workplace issues for you to have to deal with, and they’ll work harder.

      Unless you see them as completely disposable because the law won’t touch you and there will always be desperate people to fill those positions at any given time, fear is a ridiculous thing to want to instill in your workforce.

      • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        It’s abuser tactics - “You’re lucky you’ve got me, no-one else would have you, now take more shit.” It’s cheaper than making employees feel happy and valued. And yeah, some very successful companies absolutely see their employees as disposable. I’m hoping this’ll become a problem for them when they’ve burned through the available pool of vulnerable staff, but we don’t seem to be there yet.

      • oh_@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        That’s Amazon and many other big tech company cultures. Hostile hustle culture. You could always lose your job as you need to be a “top performer” to stay. They purposely let the “lowest performers” go on a regular basis.

      • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        But why? Why make them scared they’ll lose their jobs

        Overly bossy bosses often believe that people work more, or perform better this way.