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Comment by andirk | Hacker News Reader

If what I do as a seasoned software engineer becomes redundant because of "artificial intelligence", so be it. Then I'll need to learn more, which I am! I'm not in the business of stiffening technology like an oil baron.

I do understand that IP, for example using an actor's likeness via CGI+AI, is a very real issue that needs to be addressed.

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People who are not working in IT but in a much less paid professions don't have enough war chest and savings to have luxury take a year off to learn new skill.

This might even apply to fresh IT students who started collage this year - they won't be happy that 10 years from now, just 5 years after graduation and still with student debt, their salaries are not above average anymore.

What exactly do you think you can learn at that point, that'd give you market value?

Seriously: it's time to get an MBA if you've ever considered it. Why? Because an MBA teaches one how organizations operate, from non-profits, to government agencies, to startups, and all the transitions to a major conglomerate. As AI proposes to change how all this is done, those of us that understand the essentials of designing, implementing, and maintaining dynamic automated systems that incorporate AI to operate organizations are in the positions to change how business is done for a very long time. It's an extreme power seat, if and only if you also have the professional communications to convince, create collations, and manage the confusion that is sure to arise as AI changes fundamental methods of running organizations.

It AI makes senior engineers obsolete what makes you think it won't do the same to MBAs

In my albeit limited experience so far… ChatGPT4 is surprisingly good at “doing the MBA bullshit” as I call it. Vague thoughts go in from me the user, coherent business jargon comes out and I can even ask for an explanation if it tosses me a term I’ve never heard before so I can make sure I actually understand the suggested MBA bullshit that I loathe thinking/writing like and can then use it properly.

I wouldn’t be betting like the GP that an MBA will somehow help more than other skillsets… the fact that it already seems like ChatGPT4 is at least capable of MBA ish things at at a quality level that approximates at least basic levels of competency in the field of business management… should not really be a surprise when you think about how much gets written about management by managers to other people in business and management, lots of training data.

But a senior engineer with an MBA is neither, they are both and more. A senior engineer with an MBA is far more capable than the majority realize. They can optimize within a business to the degree entire departments are automated. Serious: we all work in complex organizations, and knowing how they are composed and how they interoperate, and how all that is boiled into an accounting soup is what an MBA teaches. If we're supposed to be automating all that, having an MBA is essential to not be a mindless minion working on processes without knowledge of how your work fits into the whole during this gargantuan transition.

This site is a parody of itself.

Honest question - if AI will take over software engineering, why wouldn't it also make AI experts obsolete?

At that time, there still will be a "A100/H100/successor replacement specialist" probably necessary. Or any other variant of a data centre hardware admin

A propos the likeness point, a question to get people's opinions. What is the difference between your skills today which lead to earning potential and an actor's likeness which gives the actor more rights to a continued income stream?

My software engineering skills are more that of a robot and if someone could make many of me, I/we could get a lot more done and that's a good thing. An actor has 1 likeness as their skill so it should be at their discretion. Plenty of overlap between the two situations, but to really replicate my skillset to the point where it could be harnessed outside of my control is a lot more sophisticated than replicating someone's image, voice, mannerisms, etc.

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