alt Hacker NewsI have a suspicion that, outside of tech, AI WILL speed up the mundane aspects of people’s jobs, that part which they spend 80% of their time getting through, so they can then do the 20% where they actually add value.
BUT the new time they unlock will be spent doing more of the mundane work that previously just didn’t get done because it was overtaken by events or it got done to the absolute barest minimum level.
As a result the 20% where they add value never really grows or changes and in fact might be less valuable because of all the extra noise created by doing more tasks in the 80%.
This is working theory and likely full of holes.
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Once the OS and app hooks are in place, I think its biggest win is going to be plain language automation. Even if we don't have it write all of our emails and report, simply being able to say "show me the emails Bob sent about the project" or "did Bob ever say he was going to call Phil?" and get an accurate answer will be huge. We're approaching that in programming, when I can use general terms to automate operations within a codebase. The dream of "programming" with plain language may finally be realized.
Its not even a theory tbh. Its just a statement - utterance.
> BUT the new time they unlock will be spent doing more of the mundane work
...which will also quickly be done by "AI", uncovering more such tasks until most of the "mundane work" is done by "AI" leaving humans free to do "non-mundane work". Of course those less mundane tasks require more insight, intelligence, knowledge and initiative from those humans which means some people will just not be able to keep up with their competitors, the humans who can do the less mundane tasks and the "AI" which can do the mundane stuff faster, more reliably and cheaper.
The big question is what those humans will do once such a scenario becomes true.
The mundane tasks are only about 20% of the work for white collar works. AI just eliminates the low-value mundane tasks.
Unless AI companies are willing to do the impossible and accept liability for incorrect responses/outcomes, they're never going to be trusted with any task that could incur liability (law, accounting, medicine, architecture, engineering).
How will AI do mundane work like:
- Cleaning - Picking up rubbish - Stocking shelves - Healthcare - Fruit picking
Thats only the start, while a lot of people do work on a computer, far more dont.