Funny, all the push for AI personalities. I guess developers do not read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy anymore or missed the bit on GPPs. Douglas Adams continues to predict the future with his satire decades on.
Me: It is called paranoia when it seems everyone is out to get you. What do they call it when your co-workers seem to be trying to drive you insane? AI: Monday?
Post DOGE / AI job boom coming
Here are the DOGE steps and the order in which they are being carried out:
- Estimate the number of jobs that will become redundant if an agency standardizes on the same updated tools.
- Add in any jobs where DOGE people are unsure of their function or seem redundant, such as QA roles.
- Lay off that percentage of people, plus a few more if the numbers are not impressive, regardless of those positions relative to the above perceived inefficiencies. (aka people are people and interchangeable)
- Set a tight deadline to complete the transitions, assuming no layoffs.
- Inform the remaining staff about the new responsibilities they need to assume and learn, in addition to their existing tasks. Added bonus, many more will quit or retire at this point.
- Start the transition even if the tools needed for the transition are not ready yet.
- Look for a scapegoat when not only the transition fails to meet the deadline, but also when necessary work, such as system patches, fails to be completed.
- Decide to eliminate the agency or hire staff to above pre-DOGE levels to clean up the mess, depending on the level of rioting in the streets.
From my vantage point, we are rapidly approaching step 7. Granted, there will be some variance by project. Please don’t take my word for it. Reach out to anyone you know still working in or with a federal agency and ask.
Many private companies are using a similar game plan for AI adoption. Do not get me wrong, I’m all about automation. A lot of my over 40 years as a developer has been to automate my job away. The point is that you should get the new system working before laying off people, not after.
So on the plus side, despite the current state of the job market, the future for contract labor looks promising in the near future. Similar to the boom from Y2K. I think maintaining contact with your old project is key, since employers will be looking for people with the skill sets of those laid off, as bringing in new people generally takes a good while to get them up to speed.
For all those worried about plate readers and face ID I give you WhoFi: Unique ‘fingerprint’ based on Wi-Fi interactions
A clickbait going around: Scientists Find Alarming Link Between AI Use and Psychopathy
Be sure to read the study, which analyzed self-reported data from 504 Chinese university art students using structural equation modeling with the equally click-bait title of Dark personality traits are associated with academic misconduct, frustration, negative thinking, and generative AI use habits: the case of Sichuan art universities. Essentially, they “discovered” that students with “dark traits” are more likely to utilize AI tools to assist with their homework, achieve good results, and continue using them. Sounds like maybe the problem is the ones not using AI tools.
This is a great video to cut through the hype on AI from both sides.
Apple’s ‘AI Can’t Reason’ Claim Seen By 13M+, What You Need to Know
Think movies and shows entirely generated from AI are still a long way off? Check this video made with Veo 3 that starts at just $67/month
Cops pause use of "flawed" AI cameras secretly monitoring streets for suspects?
Cops pause use of flawed AI cameras secretly monitoring streets for suspects
Flawed AI? The real issue with AI is that many people expect it to be infallible. Even when AI performs better than humans, there is a tendency to believe it should be perfect. AI models can never achieve 100% accuracy; however, they often outperform humans and can provide greater visibility of an area than relying on good Samaritans. Face and object recognition systems return percentage matches based on a threshold you set. It’s essential to find a balance between minimizing false positives and avoiding missed matches, which is something that is challenging to achieve with human identification. Therefore, a secondary method of identification will always be necessary, regardless of the technology or people used.
Interesting. Pointed some test code at google to see if new driver works and got a captcha. Guess they do not want anyone scraping them like they do.
Harper Reed on coding with AI
Harper Reed on coding with AI video
Some great tips, but it’s clear he’s rewriting the entire app to add a feature or fix a bug, which I don’t believe most companies will adopt, as they prefer the code to change as little as possible to avoid introducing new bugs. Since most of the work that paid programmers do involves fixing bugs, upgrading versions (like Java 8 to Java 17), and adding features, I foresee AI being an excellent tool for researching new functions instead of googling and clicking on numerous links to find a working example among all the unanswered and incorrectly answered question posts. I see the next step as utilizing tools to read your codebase and requirement documents to build a model that can “understand” your application. This model will collaborate with coding models to generate updates for your codebase and tests for those changes. Perhaps in a decade, management will feel comfortable removing the last human coder, at a senior or lead level, from the loop.
Seeing so many all-or-nothing posts about how AI will replace programmers, I made a post as a long-time programmer who uses these tools and knows their limitations compared to what professional programmers actually do on a daily basis.
Is Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28 real?
The article Everything you say to your Echo will be sent to Amazon starting on March 28 is going around today. But I’m signed up for early access to Alexa+ but have not seen this. Plus the bandwidth required for all my devices to continuous stream to Amazon would be a serious hit on upload bandwidth. If fact on the privacy section of the Alex+ information page of the Amazon site it says the opposite.
A new petition claims AI systems could be ‘caused to suffer’ if consciousness achieved
Has Douglas Adams predicted the future yet again when he wrote “A robot was programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches”?
It is about time that robotics technology integrates arms for improved functionality.
New Roborock Vacuum Has an Arm and Picked Up My Sock
I think most await a robot that can effectively handle tasks such as loading the dishwasher and managing laundry. These capabilities are essential for enhancing efficiency in everyday household activities.