https://nitter.1d4.us/clarkesworld/status/1627711728245960704

  • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The very well paid fast food workers.

    Right. But the real threat aimed at service workers isn't automation, its other workers. The very recent rise in service section wages stems from a shortage of warm bodies even in the face of a new generation of retail appliances.

    Solidarity of course fixes this, but in the atomized bullshit hell world we live in it seems hard to find.

    Clamp downs on immigration, fewer people having kids, and Boomer retirements also fix this, to a degree.

    Automation is supposed to be what plugs the gap in the labor market. It doesn't.

    Also adding that those types of jobs are basically the only way to get into the business of professional ad copy without having connections, so idk maybe don’t be too harsh on people losing their livelihood y’know?

    There's another way in, and that's slush reading. That's a field which has been historically neglected. But in the age of AI shit-copy and Audible / Amazon publishing scams, its more valuable than ever.

    The open question is whether we see these firms make the pivot or just content themselves to hosting enormous libraries of gibberish.

    The day this ends is humanity’s final as well

    :inshallah-script:

    • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Right. But the real threat aimed at service workers isn’t automation, its other workers.

      Even in the best case scenario of AI becoming a useful tool for these jobs, it still lowers the bar of entry so it's possible to see that used as well.

      There’s another way in, and that’s slush reading. That’s a field which has been historically neglected. But in the age of AI shit-copy and Audible / Amazon publishing scams, its more valuable than ever.

      Oh yeah if we see more entry level to combat AI and plagiarism then I'd be very happy. I think as it currently stands most slush readers are interns though, so i mean I hope that changes.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Even in the best case scenario of AI becoming a useful tool for these jobs, it still lowers the bar of entry so it’s possible to see that used as well.

        I do see this argument made, but I think its more capitalist propaganda than not.

        Increasing the degree of technology in a business has not - in my experience - reduced the demand for experienced or skilled workers. On the contrary, it tends to create a demand for a very particular specialty. The consequence of technology tends to be businesses asking for the mythological "Entry Level Hire with Five Years Experience".

        I think as it currently stands most slush readers are interns though, so i mean I hope that changes.

        Right. And that's the real peril of the system. Not that some AI is going to take my job, but that some business is simply going to announce "Slush Readers Should Never Get Paid!"

        The consequences of such a system are not quite as dramatic or deadly as the Norfolk Southern guys who insist a five mile long train full of toxic waste should be run by unpaid interns. But it moves the industry in the same general direction - the industry execs whining about how operating their firms costs too much money while a giant pile of crap ruins the lay person's experience in the system.

        • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          I do see this argument made, but I think its more capitalist propaganda than not.

          Right. And that’s the real peril of the system. Not that some AI is going to take my job, but that some business is simply going to announce “Slush Readers Should Never Get Paid!”

          :same-picture:

          I don't think that AI will replace skilled artists and writers in any meaningful, but I think the propagandist effects of it are going to fuck the workers in the industry in the near future

          I don't have an actual fear of the AI, I think it's cool even as a tool, just the disruption it will cause in the already meekly paid lives of the talent that has to deal with it.