Chris Tzagkarakis

Research Scientist

[Andrew Ng @AndrewYNg]

There will be no AI jobpocalypse.

The story that AI will lead to massive unemployment is stoking unnecessary fear. AI — like any other technology — does affect jobs, but telling overblown stories of large-scale unemployment is irresponsible and damaging. Let’s put a stop to it.

I’ve expressed skepticism about the jobpocalypse in previous posts. I’m glad to see that the popular press is now pushing back on this narrative. The image below features some recent headlines.

Software engineering is the sector most affected by AI tools, as coding agents race ahead. Yet hiring of software engineers remains strong! So while there are examples of AI taking away jobs, the trends strongly suggest the net job creation is vastly greater than the job destruction — just like earlier waves of technology. Further, despite all the exciting progress in AI, the U.S. unemployment rate remains a healthy 4.3%.

Why is the AI jobpocalypse narrative so popular? For one thing, frontier AI labs have a strong incentive to tell stories that make AI technology sound more powerful. At their most extreme, they promote science-fiction scenarios of AI “taking over” and causing human extinction. If a technology can replace many employees, surely that technology must be very valuable!

Also, a lot of SaaS software companies charge around $100-$1000 per user/year. But if an AI company can replace an employee who makes $100,000 — or make them 50% more productive — then charging even $10,000 starts to look reasonable. By anchoring not to typical SaaS prices but to salaries of employees, AI companies can charge a lot more.

Additionally, businesses have a strong incentive to talk about layoffs as if they were caused by AI. After all, talking about how they’re using AI to be far more productive with fewer staff makes them look smart. This is a better message than admitting they overhired during the pandemic when capital was abundant due to low interest rates and a massive government financial stimulus.

To be clear, I recognize that AI is causing a lot of people’s work to change. This is hard. This is stressful. (And to some, it can be fun.) I empathize with everyone affected. At the same time, this is very different from predicting a collapse of the job market.

Societies are capable of telling themselves stories for years that have little basis in reality and lead to poor society-wide decision making. For example, fears over nuclear plant safety led to under-investment in nuclear power. Fears of the “population bomb” in the 1960s led countries to implement harsh policies to reduce their populations. And worries about dietary fat led governments to promote unhealthy high-sugar diets for decades.

Now that mainstream media is openly skeptical about the jobpocalypse, I hope these stories will start to lose their teeth (much like fears of AI-driven human extinction have).

Contrary to the predictions of an AI jobpocalypse, I predict the opposite: There will be an AI jobapalooza! AI will lead to a lot more good AI engineering jobs, and I’m also optimistic about the future of the overall job market. What AI engineers do will be different from traditional software engineering, and many of these jobs will be in businesses other than traditional large employers of developers. In non-AI roles, too, the skills needed will change because of AI. That makes this a good time to encourage more people to become proficient in AI, and make sure they’re ready for the different but plentiful jobs of the future!

[Original text in The Batch newsletter.]

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

"The University of Zurich @UZH_en has decided to withdraw from the Times Higher Education World University Ranking @timeshighered. The ranking is not able to reflect the wide range of activities in teaching and research undertaken by universities."
https://t.co/jiyPzj3T60

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

Moving to a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay is not a radical idea. It's time for working people to benefit from advancements in AI, automation, and new technology, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street.

[Theodore Lytras @TheodoreLytras]

Έτσι είχα μια ιστορία στο στρατό... όχι με ΚΕΚ αλλά με χάπια. Ευτυχώς είχα Anexate και ξύπνησε, προτού πάθει εισρόφηση κ τον χάσουμε μες στο αναρρωτήριο.

Όταν (μετά τα μπινελίκια) 'μολόγησε ότι πήρε Hipnosedon+βότκα, στο τσακ τον πρόλαβαν οι Ν-Τ πριν τον πνίξω με τα χέρια μου...

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

Wondering about the real reasons for big-tech recent layoffs? Here might be the answer.

[Bernard Marr @BernardMarr]

In this article, we look at the recent #layoffs at #techgiants, including #Google, #Microsoft, #Meta, #Twitter, and #Amazon, and explore some of the interesting facts about who was made #redundant as well as the possible reasons behind the decisions.

https://t.co/KJYujerAI2

[Ioanna Papadakou @G_Papadakou]

Σε απάντηση όσων είπε ο #Μητσοτακης στη #Βουλη:
Πού να ξέρουν αυτοί από ελευθεροτυπία , από ελευθερία της έκφρασης! Από δημοσιογραφική έρευνα !
Βρίσκονται σε πανικό για τις πανευρωπαϊκές και παγκόσμιες αντιδράσεις για τις διώξεις των δημοσιογράφων στην Ελλάδα και στην 1/

[MARVEL Project @MARVELprojecteu]

2021 was completed for us with the MARVEL Minimum Viable Product of Multimodal Extreme Scale Data analytics for Smart Cities Environments! Join us on Friday the 28th of January and see live its demonstration! Register here: https://t.co/4XTYqT7lZZ
#MARVELMVP #MARVELInfoDay2021

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

@govgr @PrimeministerGR @kmitsotakis @MinJustGR @tsiaras_kostas @RSF_en @guardian @Reuters @BBCWorld @CNNgreece @cnni @ECPMF @globalfreemedia @CoEMediaFreedom @EUI_CMPF @G_Papadakou @KostasVaxevanis

[Stelios Orphanides @stylian65]

Greece's Federation of Journalist Unions slams decision of government-controlled prosecutors to criminally prosecute journalists @KostasVaxevanis and Ioanna Papadakou for their investigative reporting on bribes paid by Swiss pharma producer Novartis.
https://t.co/qsIHSAN4s5

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

Έρευνα για την περίοδο 9/2020-5/2021 των @TheodoreLytras και @STsiodras, εξετάζει το πώς η αυξημένη πίεση στο ΕΣΥ, ο τόπος και το αν οι διασωληνωμένοι θα νοσηλευτούν εντός ΜΕΘ, μειώνει τις πιθανότητες του ασθενούς να επιβιώσει @PrimeministerGR @Vkikilias @thanosplevris @govgr

[Theodore Lytras @TheodoreLytras]

Άρθρο μας με @STsiodras στο @JournalSjph για θνητότητα 🇬🇷 διασωληνωμένων #COVID19 ασθενών σε σχέση με το φόρτο του συστήματος υγείας, ως αρχές Μαϊου 2020.
https://t.co/XcRrXbxhRO
Αναδεικνύει τις χαμηλές "αντοχές" του ΕΣΥ, που δεν αφορούν μόνο τη διαθεσιμότητα ΜΕΘ. *Thread*

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

Our paper on explainable ML based Twitter bot detection accepted at @RealAAAI sponsored @icwsm conference. A pre-print version will be uploaded soon.
@concordiah2020 @Intelliot_eu @CyberSANEH2020 @CYRENE_H2020 @H2020Puzzle @aifourhealthsec @SentinelH2020 @h2020_heir @c4iiot

[Alexander Shevtsov @alex_drk14]

Really happy to announce our paper "Identification of Twitter Bots based on an Explainable ML Framework: the US 2020 Elections Case Study." with
@antonakd , @ctzag and @sotirisioannidi is accepted to @icwsm .

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

Extremely impressive results from the @GoogleAI (Brain Team) regarding accurate image super-resolution results

[Prokopis Doukas @ProkopisDoukas]

Σήμερα το πρωί, λίγο πριν την εκπομπή, έπεσα θύμα bullying από στελέχη της @hellenicpolice (όπως έμαθα αργότερα, γιατί φορούσαν κοστούμια), επειδή θεώρησαν οτι έφταιγα για ένα αστείο ατύχημα που είχαν, λόγω μαγκιάς. Φυσικά με καθυστέρησαν απαράδεκτα, η εκπομπή άργησε να αρχίσει.

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

@govgr @PrimeministerGR @kmitsotakis @theodorikakosp @MinJustGR @tsiaras_kostas @hellenicpolice @RSF_en @guardian @Reuters @BBCWorld @CNNgreece @cnni

[RSF in English @RSF_en]

Tomorrow will mark 6 months since Giorgos #Karaivaz’s murder in #Greece & still no suspect has been identified. @RSF_inter calls on authorities to keep their promise to prioritise the case & to make every possible effort to solve it fast. https://t.co/AJ8Ee9zhLF

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

@MinDigitalGr @Pierrakakis

[Διομήδης Σπινέλλης @DSpinellis]

Ψηφιακός μετασχηματισμός δε γίνεται χωρίς ουσιαστική διοικητική αναδιοργάνωση, απλοποίηση διαδικασιών και τολμηρές διαρθρωτικές αλλαγές. Τα δύσμοιρα 16 διαφορετικά «υπολογισμικά» [sic] του ΑΤΛΑΣ απλώς δε θα έπρεπε να υπάρχουν σε έναν ανασχεδιασμένο e-ΕΦΚΑ. https://t.co/EaVoR493CL

[Thomas G. Dietterich @tdietterich]

Thoughts upon reading https://t.co/jKxdZsifgk:
In this paper, the authors compare highly-cited papers from 2008-2009 with papers from 2018-2019 published in NeurIPS and ICML and summarize the values (i.e., desirable aspects) highlighted in those papers. 1/

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

... https://t.co/WO7wUwlsOi

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

@fontikos @PatelisAlex @PrimeministerGR @kmitsotakis Βέβαια. Άλλη η φύση της εργασίας στο ερευνητικό/ακαδημαϊκό και άλλη στο industrial domain. Πάρε παράδειγμα τους industrial partners (προφανώς όχι όλους) σε EU-funded projects, και την ποιότητα δουλειάς τους συναρτήσει του χρόνου εργασίας τους, που εμπλέκεται στο project.

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

https://t.co/R3CSNW2ncN
Κάποιος να ενημερώσει τον προϊστάμενο του οικονομικού γραφείου της Γενικής Γραμματείας ΠΘ, ότι πρέπει το ΔΔ να θεωρείται (επιτέλους) προϋπηρεσία.
@PatelisAlex @PrimeministerGR @kmitsotakis

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

@GTzag @PatelisAlex @PrimeministerGR @kmitsotakis δε νομίζω να υπάρξει ανταπάντηση, απλώς μία "λείανση" των λεγομένων...ευτυχώς, τα videos μένουν (όπως και τα γραπτά)

[Chris Tzagkarakis @ctzag]

Ο Πανελλήνιος Σύνδεσμος Αμειβομένων Καλαθοσφαιριστών εκφράζει την αγανάκτηση του, για την αντιμετώπιση που έχουν οι αθλητές των ερασιτεχνικών σωματείων και οι Ακαδημίες. @i_psak @kmitsotakis @l_avgenakis @cultureGR @Mavrogiorgos @HellenicBF

[PSAKK @i_psak]

Είμαστε κράτος δικαίου;
https://t.co/KhbCdI9TbG