Shortsighted CEOs
It’s all the buzz now, AI, the latest and greatest tool in the programmer's toolbox. AI will write screenplays, novels, code for new applications, design for cars and boats, and even create new circuit boards for emerging technologies. And it will do all of these 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without stopping YEA! Just think of the money we’ll make.
Yeah, about that. The shortsighted outlook of C-Suite executives and shareholders is the most pathetic aspect of AI and automation. See, companies create products and services for people to purchase. That’s generally how companies make their money. Ford builds cars and trucks. People buy cars and trucks, and they pay Ford for those cars and trucks. That is how Ford makes money. And yes, a good portion of the labor involved in building those cars and trucks is automated. That means fewer employees are needed to build those items.
Here, though, is where the breakdown starts. The fewer people working, the less money there is in the general population. In fact, unemployment has a HUGE impact on the economy and gross domestic product. While the most basic element of economics is the concept of Supply and Demand, there is another fact of economics rarely addressed by the CEO pushing for AI and automation:
Broke people do not buy your shit.
Yes, in any company, payroll is a huge part of the equation of profit and loss. The more people you have, the more of your profit potential goes to pay those employees. If you can remove more employees from the equation, your profits improve. If you can get employees cheaper because AI will do most of the work, your profits improve. However, therein lies the rub. Cheaper usually means problems.
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I work in the Information Technologies sector and have done so for almost 40 years now. The day job I currently have REQUIRES all software engineers to have a license for GitHub CoPilot and to use it. Now, while I may have software engineer in my job title, I am not one. I’m a database analyst, and I have seen firsthand how CoPilot fails at even the most basic database tasks. The time wasted trying to get CoPilot to actually produce valid SQL code could have been better spent on other, more productive activities. I am also a rather expensive IT professional. It comes with the experience.
The reason for companies pushing to use AI is pretty transparent. Using CoPilot means they can hire any kid fresh out of community college at about a third of what they pay me, and they believe they will get the same results because … AI. Unfortunately, AI is not to that level yet. I have fought with the garbage code it puts out, and believe me, most junior programmers will be lost trying to debug the trash created by AI.
Then there is my other job, writer. Have you seen the crap put out by AI platforms that some folks are trying to pass off as stories, or worse, legal briefs? A certain pillow man and his lawyers got into some serious hot water because the lawyers used GenAI to create a legal brief that cited cases and judgments that did not exist. This is also the case in the Health and Human Services’ agency, where a certain secretary produced a report that cited non-existent research papers. And the crap put out as novels by AI; I have seen better from first-graders.
But the push is on. AI and automation are not going to go away, unless the secretary at the Department of Education sticks her foot into actual development of A1(the steak sauce). C-Suite executives love the idea of replacing employees with AI, or at the very least, getting them for a lot cheaper. The short-term profit is great. “Look at all the money we saved by not paying AI.” They will push for even more, and unemployment will climb. The shareholders will be ecstatic about the health of the stocks.
And then the floor will fall out. Broke people will not buy your shit. When you have a large population of unemployed people who cannot afford what you create, you have no future. Your company will fail, you will be sued by the shareholders, and all the investment you made in AI and automation will do nothing for you, because no one can buy what you create.
But, hey, go for it. AI and automate your entire company. I personally think this world could do with a lot fewer billionaires.
