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by simonw 7 days ago
I personally hope that AI continues not to result in a noticeable negative impact on employment and that pandemic over-hiring turns out to be the major factor for all of the layoffs.

I'm nervous that the studies which show that so far don't seem to be taking the 2026 improvements in coding and general agents into account.
1 comments
Avicebron 7 days ago
Is this genuine concern or is it stealth-marketing? It's hard to tell when someone is so publicly benefiting off the hype.
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simonw 7 days ago
What the heck would I be "stealth-marketing" here?

It's genuine concern. I do not want to live in a dystopia where AI results in mass unemployment. That would suck, even for the people who manage to stay employed.

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Avicebron 7 days ago
I trust you when you say that.

> What the heck would I be "stealth-marketing" here?

Cynically, "thought-leaderishness".

I've been spending a lot of my time these days outlining why we can't "just make an agent for it" to CEOs who read blogs like yours. They can't distinguish a production system from a quick HTML tool from a guy whose job doesn't depend on it working.

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simonw 7 days ago
One of the goals of my blog is to help CEOs who read it not make stupid decisions. I aim to be a counter to the breathless LinkedIn hype they are exposed to everywhere else.
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afpx 6 days ago
Looking foward to the generated images of a CEO riding a toilet
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slopinthebag 6 days ago
No offense but wouldn’t being an AI booster run contrary to this goal? I imagine being an Ed Zitron type would be more conducive with that, albeit dishonest if you don’t genuinely believe it.
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simonw 6 days ago
I wrote about this back in March 2023: https://simonwillison.net/2023/Mar/11/llama/#use-this-for-go...

> I think this is going to have a huge impact on society. My priority is trying to direct that impact in a positive direction.

> It’s easy to fall into a cynical trap of thinking there’s nothing good here at all, and everything generative AI is either actively harmful or a waste of time. [...]

> I’m going to continue exploring and sharing genuinely positive applications of this technology. It’s not going to be un-invented, so I think our priority should be figuring out the most constructive possible ways to use it.

That's been my focus ever since: try and use whatever influence I have to nudge things in a positive direction, and help people figure out how they can use this technology in a way that is beneficial both to them and to other people.

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