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Vulgar Marxist, Kentucky proud, fuck work. She/her anniemcclanahan.com
Yes, unemployment is growing faster among young men in the USA than young women. But @jburnmurdoch.ft.com argues that underneath the headlines is a story of men being less likely to work in education and healthcare, two industries where employment defies cyclical trends.
Thinking about all the universities (incl. mine) with higher ed admins who bought the hype to selfishly boost their careers, now leaving the rest of us to foot the bill amidst slashed budgets.
“The bubble bursting was never going to be one event, but a series of sentiment shifts against technology that has never proven its worth outside of specious hype” @edzitron.com
Rather suddenly, there’s been a vibe shift around artificial intelligence, the tech that’s hypnotized Wall Street and inspired cultish devotion across Silicon Valley over the past three years.
"what if there was a publication that was 4% more reactionary than the Atlantic but 6% less reactionary than the Free Press?" Wow how exciting, here is $8 per month
The bubble is popping. When we look back, I expect, we will say it has already popped.
open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...
I'm insufferably, interminably on-record arguing that AGI discourse is alienating, historically untethered, and misleading (nymag.com/intelligence...). But now of its biggest boosters — and, as @himself.bsky.social points out, an influential figure in AI and foreign policy — says: ok, yeah
have seen; will use!
I also think yr quality point is crucial. Back at mid-century, economist William Baumol posited that service work produced minimal growth b/c quality in that sector was judged by high labor/low output (small class sizes, e.g.). AI has undone that by breaking the link between human labor and quality.
In 2019, the macroeconomists Acemoglu & Restrepo came up with the term "so-so automation": tech of middling quality that only marginally improves the "productivity" and thus generates v minimal economic growth. I think it's very helpful for understanding now! www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
(Spring 2019) - We present a framework for understanding the effects of automation and other types of technological changes on labor demand, and use it to interpret changes in US employment over the ...
I've been shit-reposting AI stuff today so I'll mention that I'm giving a talk about AI (and about RL Kuang's Babel, and about That UCLA Comp Lit Class, and about the history of the teaching machine etc etc etc) at the EI at UCI in October. If you're near, come! www.eventbrite.com/e/the-englis...
Since 2023, translators and interpreters have seen work dry up, rates plummet and their jobs reduced to editing AI-generated output. Some are leaving the field, others are considering bankruptcy. All despite any major upgrade in translation quality.
This is how AI is killing translation work:
Few industries have been hit by AI as hard as translation. Rates are plummeting. Work is drying up. Translators are considering abandoning the field, or bankruptcy. These are their stories.
