SF exec defends 'brutal' tech trend

sfgate.com

15 points·danorama··9 comments

Okay, but where are "engineers who are skilled in AI" magically going to spring from? The pool for such talent is effectively empty.

This is effectively the world's dumbest swap meet - they dump a bunch of good, experienced employees. And in 6 months they are going to be hiring the laid off employees from other companies who are most effective at embellishing their resume. Great job! So smart.

Honest question, What does skilled in ai even mean ? Knowing how to use the frameworks and apis, or knowing the foundations of the field.

Largely, it refers to skilled in applying AI (currently LLMs) to fix business problems or provide interesting products that would hopefully create a niche for themselves.

So the outrage over layoff is being blamed on "AI" but is actually "companies firing and rehiring, rather than spend anything on training?"

In a world in which unions existed thie might work differently.

I am scared of layoffs as much as the next guy but the "invest in training" story is not possible at all when employees can jump ship with 0 friction.

Maybe, perhaps maybe, you make an environment where they don't want to jump ship at the drop of a hat.

Say, like maybe providing on the job training

I disagree. That used to be a cornerstone of the economy —- competing for labor, not just the customer.

Yeah it is lol. Work on hiring people who aren't flight risks, then work on retention initiatives.

It is possible for employers to fund employee training through external schools using loans, and then forgive those loans after a few years of continued employment. A former employer paid for my Master's degree that way.

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