I'm posting this as a followup to something I previously posted about many "knowledge jobs" already beginning to be obsoleted by AI. As you may recall, that assertion was challenged and I gave some specific examples (I cited DuoLingo, programming, language teachers, and robo-taxies), but didn't find as many good articles as I had expected. Well, here is another. Give AI a body, with five years to work out the kinks and train the AI and I have a hard time imagining what humans are going to be able to do better.
Maybe prostitution will remain firmly ruled by humans for some time? What else would be really hard for a super-smart, super-indefatigable, high dexterity AI robot to do better than a human?
And can humans stay alive and evolving forward if there is no point in competing with AI robots? Does it really matter, in the end, if humans are more “conscious” than their robot, if their robot is better at, basically, everything?
Last thought: Remember "Master-blaster" from Mad Max? Kind of like that, except the coming AI likely doesn't even need our bodies for much longer?
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http://developers.slashdot.org/story/25/05/26/1541224/at-amazon-some-coders-say-their-jobs-have-begun-to-resemble-warehouse-work
(nytimes.com) 78
Posted by msmash on Monday May 26, 2025 @11:41AM from the new-world-order dept.
Amazon software engineers are reporting that AI tools are transforming their jobs into something resembling the company's warehouse work, with managers pushing faster output and tighter deadlines while teams shrink in size, according to the New York Times.
Three Amazon engineers told the New York Times that the company has raised productivity goals over the past year and expects developers to use AI assistants that suggest code snippets or generate entire program sections. One engineer said his team was cut roughly in half but still expected to produce the same amount of code by relying on AI tools.
The shift mirrors historical workplace changes during industrialization, the Times argues, where technology didn't eliminate jobs but made them more routine and fast-paced. Engineers describe feeling like "bystanders in their own jobs" as they spend more time reviewing AI-generated code rather than writing it themselves. Tasks that once took weeks now must be completed in days, with less time for meetings and collaborative problem-solving, according to the engineers.
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