alt Hacker NewsThis is a distilled version of what people say about the tech industry in the past year or so. Replace math with any field, and the statement is still relevant.
This is a distilled version of what people say about the tech industry in the past year or so. Replace math with any field, and the statement is still relevant.
I don't think it's that simple. I divide AI-impacted fields into three buckets:
1. Some present a unified line that the whole point of their craft is the human experience, and that automation is the antithesis of that. Marathon runners don't care that a car can get there faster, poets don't care that Poem Bot 2000 can write poems too. I think this is smart if you can credibly take this position. The difficulty is mostly convincing the buy side, which requires being very outspoken about your views.
2. Some appear to be undecided, with one faction taking the pro-human stance and another rushing to accelerate things with AI. A good example of this is mathematics, and I really wonder where they end up in the long haul. They have a very good claim on #1, because mathematics is pretty close to an art form and is robustly insulated from the pressures of the marketplace. But they can also choose option #3, below.
3. Some crafts prioritize results above all else, practitioners either rushing to extract as much money as possible before it all collapses, or believing that they can out-prompt everyone else forever and that their prompting skills are indispensable to their employers in the long haul. That's software engineering. I think this is going to be interesting to watch.