Does Technology Actually Kill Jobs?

Learn about some times new technology put people out of work...and times when it didn't!

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[RKSNomad]

2:45 as someone who works in telecom, the buildings that housed this equipment are now abandoned and sometimes haunted. its so eerie walking through a massive 6 story building with little to no windows that have moldy walls and droopy ceiling tiles... then you find the server rooms which are still maintained well. The amount of jobs lost to automation in telecom is nuts.

[savagepro]

Alex: Does Technology Actually Kill Jobs?
Alex, next year: AI fcked me up!

[Jjop]

Technology and AI can help workers be more productive, work faster or produce the same outcome with less effort. The problem is exploitive capitalism, the bosses who just want more and more money every year. They will just replace all workers or ask the same worker to produce more results, of course at any time they can just fire them and hire a new one.

[mariowiiluigi]

"You can always become a streamer." 7:23


even streaming is safe of AI, especially from a vtuber turtle and his both creations

[savagepro]

Thumbnail: "So, Robo, what do you think I should do"
Robo: "Go home. You're fired"

[NekoBoyOfficial]

I would love to see TV repairmen make a comeback, especially to preserve CRT TVs.

[Razear]

TVs being cheaper to replace rather than repair also speaks to the industry's shift towards planned obsolescence.

[brittb]

It's not just about if the jobs are killed, but how much the replacement jobs pay. I guarantee you, they're paying more for programmers now than they will for "prompt engineers" in the future.

[kinatasss]

I served in a military hospital in southern italy in 98 at the phone calls were still routed manually. there were no cables to be moved around, though, just buttons.

[jaspervandijck]

As a tv repair tech myself:
I hope my job stays alive for longer than the Switchboard operators.
But who knows

[spicy]

Progression is like a steamroller slowly moving towards you, you have 3 options. Move out of the way, get on board or get flattened! You can reason with it all you like but that thing is not stopping. With this in mind, you will make much better decisions!

[ShadeKoopa]

As someone who works in fast food and retail, we have AI taking over the drive thrue already. At a few McDs, one or both speakers are handled by an AI. As long as you speak loudly and clearly, which you should in the first place, the AI gets the order right most of the time.

May end up replacing the drive-thrue person, but to be honest, I'm happy for such a feature. Means we employees don't have to try listening to humans who have no idea to order. Whether they are stupid, drunk, old, a Karen, etc, they can deal with the an AI voice instead. And it's always a laugh to see them drive away in anger. XP

[KMHill]

James looks great talking at us from the garment manufacturing floor!
Also, I operated an old fashioned telephone cord-board back in 1977.

[Eoin-B]

Diggers were also replaced by diggers, the exact same as computers. I think Americans call the machines excavators.

[XH]

Chimney sweep is still an existing job where homes still have a chimney, especially in rural areas

[Mlogan]

Technology is developed to REDUCE number of current jobs needed in that area so save expenses. People then have to go to another segment of the supply line to look for work.
The problem is we are nearing a point where ALL segments of the supply chain have been maximized by technology and job reduction, leaving less decent hobs available for job seekers. Looking at past tech upgrades won't be helpful as the supply chain line had many lower technology spots to move to.

What remains are the lower level service jobs that haven't been automated like retail, delivery, restaurants, and fast food.

We are at a point where all top level professions will be affected- doctors, lawyers, engineers, programmers, etc...

[CaptainFSU]

Luddites weren't afraid of technology but angry about of losing their jobs and being forced to take up jobs that both paid less and were less safe in the city and mines, or being forced to emigrate overseas, and all because of corporate greed. One of reasons way Britain has such bad cuisine is because of the 19th century migration to the city, recipes and foods easily cooked in the country could not be had in the cities and were thus forgotten.

High workforce participation does not mean those jobs are good jobs and in a knowledge-based economy that this slowly cannibalized by automation what's even gonna be the point of college for most people or even finishing high school? We're nearly 18 months into generative ai and it's already passed the Bar Exam, in two decades what do you think it's gonna be capable of? We're fucked.

[kevinkirst]

it's not tech in itself that destroys jobs, it's those who own it and how they use it to squeeze ever bigger profit margins

[MichaelSkinner-ej]

I've thought of this for a very long time.

It is important for those in positions to set the stage to take all of that into account and implement it intelligently so that you create a vibrant work model and economy.

[armagetronfasttrack]

AI job replacement is fundamentally different than all previous tech job replacement because it targets the one area humans always used to have the advantage in: managing complex situations.

Historically, most of the jobs that were created after a new technology tool was introduced were either directly managing that new tool, or managing some new use case for that tool. Farmers went from largely farming by hand, to using basic tools like plows, to eventually managing/running modern farm vehicles and machines. The advent of computers created jobs both for managing the hardware/software directly, and also for managing all of the many use cases like sending emails and using applications to create online content.

The thing about AI is that it has/will have the ability to manage most of these types of jobs, AND also manage whatever jobs/tasks that are needed in the future. The last consistent advantage that humans have over technology of being able to manage complex situations will be gone, and the total number of jobs available for humans to meaningfully do will likely decrease significantly as time goes on. This should be a great thing, of course, as long as we reorganize society properly so that you don't need a full time job to get basic resources for living.