Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton 60 Minutes Interview

I own enough stock so thank you for your loyalty.

 

I also don't know a lot about accounting, but as far as my own work, a lot of it involves going out to worksites and using different instruments to make measurements or collect samples. I had a long chat with a slightly younger, millennial age coworker about AI at a conference last year. He was of the opinion that our jobs were safe from ever having to worry about AI, and not having given it all that much thought, I played the devil's advocate role just for funsies and argued with him. He may have been right at least as far as our occupation being directly affected by it, but by the time our conversation was over I had convinced myself and him that we are ultimately replaceable. That meaning someone would most likely have to do the field work for a long while, but the rest of our jobs, the interpretation, report writing, recommendation portion, could be done by AI. You don't need folks in our field necessarily to do the physical part if you don't have to do the rest.

 

I kind of wonder if we are actually talking to float or if it's AI float. Will we ever really know?

 

That's the thing. You can break down a role into what can be done by AI and the bits which can't be. The latter can be done by much less expensive resources in many cases.

 

The best I've heard it explained is that it will be like JARVIS for Tony Stark.

 

Not imminently, but eventually.

 

Gonna optimize the [uck fay] out of life until it is unlivable. Moloch.

 

If you're responding to what I think you are, I left out, "in the span of our careers," and I was actually referring to likelihood of he and I losing our jobs. I'm personally looking forward to AI making some of our work easier, hopefully anyway.

 

I am not so worried about my job, being 54 and working for the State.

But my kids? If I let myself, I lay at night worrying about it.

 

Ya. I think resisting it will be worse than trying to use it, for us workers. Let it enhance what you can do rather than try to compete with it.

 

It is gonna happen. Just like robotics in manufacturing and offshoring of other jobs. It is all about lowering the expense line. "It will improve your life" and "Allow you to do more important stuff" will be pushed hard.

Learn shit that AI can't do. Glad the 2 oldest grandsons are learning skills that I don't think an AI can do (anytime soon).

 

I haven’t made it too far but I have it write excel formulas on occasion when I need to do something I’ve never done before.

 

Watch this space. For you white collar, knowledge-based, salaried employees at major corporations, your workload will increase to the point that working 60-80 hrs/week will not be enough for you to keep up without using AI.

Somebody, somewhere (including consulting firms) have developed a dog/pony show deck demonstrating how much headcount they can reduce/not add if they develop/purchase a so-and-so AI suite.

Your companies will roll out tools developed specifically for "our" employees ... to make things "easier" for you; to allow you to focus on more meaningful tasks; <Insert the HR-approved justification>.

 

Shoot, the working world and waking world are already one. Never fully "off" except on Christmas or thanksgiving

 

I use ai at work constantly. Makes me more efficient and let me concentrate on the hard parts of my job and not the boilerplate.

 

I learned in my later years of active employment, that is a personal choice when you turn it off. Maybe now, not so much.

Especially when they need you. They begged me not to retire. I gave them 3-4 months and negotiated a pretty good package when i left.. When the company stopped reimbursing for cell phones and hi-speed internet (because we had them anyway); I shutdown and stopped answering. Made them put my cell # as my personal number in my HR folder. I lasted a good 10 years before I retired.

Maybe if I was making $500k/yr + stock options + million dollar bonuses, I would think differently.

 

And this is what will be expected if folks want to keep their job.

Change is evitable. Resistance is futile.

 

Kinda wish I could have experienced the working world before phones. Like IP said you might get holidays, but other than that the only other time in my career where I could really disconnect has been a couple hunting trips where I was outside of any kind of service.

 

We had cell phones the last ~20 years of my employment. It wasn't until the early 2000's that they (the company) started getting wonky with it. Primarily because the younger folks thought they had to answer it 24/7. The execs knew who would jump through hoops and let them get away with it. For some it was nothing more than power trip.

Don't get me wrong, if I was working a time sensitive M&A deal things were a little different, but for the most part, I shut down.
Guys above me knew better.

Unless you set reasonable boundaries, some in authority will always abuse it.

 

I know at one time it was different but now it’s not the phone calls that do you in, it’s having email and teams on your phone. I hear you on setting boundaries, but at least in the world where I started my career I do t think it was possible realistically. What I mean by that is that nobody who was hungry and career driven was ever able to, not that I ever saw. I also worked in an incredibly toxic industry so I’m not sure how comparable it is to anything else.