Was just talking to a friend at a US technology company, they’ve had their budget reduced by 50% as the company says it wants to announce “the largest layoffs in US corporate history” to prove GenAI can replace jobs.
There’s no plan to actually replace the jobs with GenAI.. they just have to decimate their area.
Not naming company as the staff don’t know they’re about to fed to the line going up.
The vibe I'm getting from lots of people at lots of orgs now is, you know during Fyre Festival, that marketing dude was like "Let's just do it and be legends, man!" when challenged about issues.
That's the GenAI plan fundamentally. Lots of people are making decisions without really knowing what they're doing, because everybody else is doing it. FOMO marketing.
I suspect a lot of large companies are going to look like this in a few years:
@GossiTheDog
FOMO marketing seems to be all there is anymore in tech.
Sucks in the short to medium term.
Oh God, so glad I retired
@GossiTheDog my annoyance is the companies are going to be ok, because they are all making the same bet. They'll find ways to make the money work eventually; or write off the losses.
It's the people who will suffer unnecessarily because of this bullshit.
@andrewmelder @GossiTheDog The answer to "too big to fail" is nationalisation. Let the organisation continue to run but take it from the shareholders.
@msb @andrewmelder I wasn't thinking of a bailout. When companies go bankrupt, a receiver decides what happens next - and that is normally appointed by the government. If the company is restructured the receiver could elect to pay suppliers and employees, while telling shareholders and bondholders that they get nothing. The government simply assumes control and injects just enough working capital to keep things working.
From the moment the company goes insolvent, it's all up to the receiver.
@msb @andrewmelder My view is that, at the point the bankruptcy happens, the shares cease to exist. If the company was performing a public good that makes it "too big to fail" then the government owns everything and the shareholders and bondholders get nothing - just as they would if the government let the organisation fail.
All taxpayer money should go to that public good. Not one penny for the people that ignored the risk.
@GossiTheDog lol 'AI is the Fyre Festival of technology marketing' is a good take.
I like a good music festival, just like many of the underlying technologies behind "AI" could do amazing things, in the right hands.
@GossiTheDog kinda like how the US govt is being run at the moment.
folks with no idea what they’re supposed to be doing, let alone how to do anything, but hey, let’s just shut this part down and fire this group and wow! that was fun! let’s do more of that!
@GossiTheDog Reminds me of The Big Short, when they visit the empty bank offices after the crash.
"What did you expect we'd find?"
"Grown-ups..."
Kevin Beaumont
Cav
Kal Feher
Fennix
Bill
Alun Jones
Steven Hoefer
Dave Rahardja
Andrew Melder
ROTOPE~1 ⭐️
Simon EI3JDB
Msb
aeva
SnoopJ
CassandraVert
Jack's Countless Lack of Cool
Thumper
Jenica Lake เหล็ถเลถ
f*cking b*tch club
OutOfSpace - 不割席
Loïc Denuzière
Muetdhiver