So here's a story for you. I won't name names but I'll let you connect the dots. There's a long running sports highlight show with a very distinctive theme. 3 music notes, repeated twice. Black and red graphics.
Anyways, 10 video editors were brought into a meeting and were told they were going to be laid off. They were handed papers and escorted out. The next day a new system was put in place by the corporation. A new software using….'AI' was implemented. Put in time codes to a spreadsheet like interface, hit okay and wait. There's your highlight package for Sportscen, uh I mean long running sports highlight show.
Workers rightfully got upset and complained. 'You can't replace us with AI editors'
Management's response in not so many words was 'the program isn't actually editing anything'.
Pardon me? It's by letter and spirit of the law, the actual definition of editing. You are taking multiple pieces of media, separating them, joining them together and making a final version of those different pieces.
Long story short our union is not letting this slide. It's too early in the game for a final result but at least in the short term it looks like we have solid ground to not see any one go… yet. At least we have some degree of power to fight back against these soulless corporate ghouls, which is better than most.
Sadly though it seems that every corporation that can replace a knowledge job through automation will do so as soon as it is possible, damn the long term repercussions.
All this short term profit nonsense is making everything lower quality and slowly bleeding what is left of the middle and working class completely dry. I'm still in my 40s but my kids… what hope do they have with the abyss we are all staring into currently? The sad thing is that this is just the dawn of the machines. Imagine what it will look like 5 years from now. Don't tell me that the kids 'will be the ones fixing the robots', we know that's not true or possible at all. The robots will fix the robots. The AI will rule the AI.
We'll all be fucked but the bonuses and stock buybacks will forge ahead, unburdened by those pesky humans who need to eat, breath and not be homeless.