Would this be happening if industry was forced to pay for the real cost to society of the AI that is replacing the programmers? Just the subsidized resource use alone, accompanied by its associated carbon load, is staggering. Add the massive theft of IP and personal data used to train the models, as well as the underpaid Third World "moderator" labor involved in cleaning up all that scraped data, and you get the picture. All those laid off programmers would be a bargain in comparison, and their compensation would contribute to a more vibrant and equitable economy.
I'm all for letting the market decide these things, so long as costs aren't socialized, especially as blatantly as is happening in the case of AI.
dagw · 3h ago
Friend of mine recently got hired by a large European defence company. They seem to have plenty of work and are desperate to hire talented developers.
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bell-cot · 4h ago
Hopefully a few of 'em can transition to teaching HS. If only to be in-your-face counterexamples for too-optimistic children & families - who really want to believe that "computers" is some magic cornucopia of endless high-paying jobs.
dagw · 3h ago
who really want to believe that "computers" is some magic cornucopia of endless high-paying jobs
Do those people still exist in any significant number? 10 years ago every teenager wanted to get into programming, now I hardly see any. The only one of my teenage kids' friends who shows any interest in studying CS at university or working as a programmer is a bonafide computer nerd.
drweevil · 56m ago
Things really change fast, don't they? A couple of election cycles ago we were all being urged to put down our coal mining tools and Learn To Code™. And speaking of magic cornucopias, now politicians think that if everyone adopts AI, somehow, automagically, the economy will revive and flourish.
bell-cot · 26m ago
Yep.
> ...now politicians think that...
I'd say 's/think/claim/'. 95% of 'em probably know that it's total BS. But also know that telling voters E-Z Quick Fix Happy Lies is the only way to get elected.
I'm all for letting the market decide these things, so long as costs aren't socialized, especially as blatantly as is happening in the case of AI.
No comments yet
Do those people still exist in any significant number? 10 years ago every teenager wanted to get into programming, now I hardly see any. The only one of my teenage kids' friends who shows any interest in studying CS at university or working as a programmer is a bonafide computer nerd.
> ...now politicians think that...
I'd say 's/think/claim/'. 95% of 'em probably know that it's total BS. But also know that telling voters E-Z Quick Fix Happy Lies is the only way to get elected.