Marijana Šarolić Robić

Homo ludens

[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.]

[Paulo Coelho Quotes @PauloCoelho_DQ]

"The distance between dreams and reality is called discipline."

| Paulo Coelho

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Jensen Huang just drew a line through the entire global workforce.

One sentence. No ambiguity.

Huang: “If your job is the task, then you’re very highly going to be disrupted.”

Not might be. Not eventually. Very highly going to be.

That single distinction between a job and a task is the most important career diagnosis anyone will hear this decade.

If you show up every day to execute a repeatable process, you are the process.

And the machine runs processes better than you. Faster. Cheaper. Without breaks. Without errors. Without a salary negotiation.

The moment your role can be written as a checklist, the checklist gets automated. And your desk gets cleared.

That is not a warning about the future. That is a description of what is already underway.

But Huang did not stop at the diagnosis. He handed you the prescription in the same breath.

Huang: “If your job’s purpose includes you certain tasks, then it is vital that you go learn how to use AI to automate those tasks.”

Your job includes tasks. But your job is not the tasks.

Your job is the judgment around them. The decisions. The context. The instinct for why the work matters and what to do when everything breaks.

That stays human. Everything else gets handed to the machine.

And the person who hands it over first does not lose their job. They become more valuable than everyone still doing it by hand. Because they just converted every hour they used to spend on execution into hours spent thinking.

The accountant who automates data entry does not get replaced. They become the strategist who used to be buried in spreadsheets.

The marketer who automates reporting does not get fired. They become the creative who used to be trapped building dashboards.

The person who refuses to automate anything becomes the most expensive way to do the cheapest work.

Huang: “It is the case that the technology will dislocate and will eliminate many tasks. And because it will automate it.”

No softening. No hopeful footnote.

Dislocation is coming. Tasks will be eliminated. That part is settled.

The only open question is which side of that line you are standing on. The side that lost the tasks. Or the side that gave them away on purpose and kept the work that actually matters.

One side gets disrupted. The other side gets dangerous.

The gap between those two outcomes is not talent. Not credentials. Not experience. It is whether you learned to use the machine before the machine learned to replace you.

That window is still open. It is closing faster than most people are willing to believe.

And it does not reopen.

[European Commission @EU_Commission]

A new chapter in 🇪🇺🇦🇺 relations.

The EU and Australia have concluded a Free Trade Agreement.

It is expected to save EU exporters €1 billion in tariffs. We’re also strengthening cooperation on raw materials, security and defence, and innovation.

More: https://t.co/XoPeUiaqRK

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@IEAmbZagreb @lordofthedance @dfatirl @IrlEmbCroatia 💃🕺🇮🇪🥳☝️🤩 was really amazing and meeting the dancers afterwards was truly inspring🙏🤩 Thank you for hosting us and brightening our Wednesday! We loved it!

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@UKinCroatia @patel_javed Cool

[New Zealand Mission to the EU @NZinEU]

Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand 🇳🇿 marking the 1840 signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi, between Māori chiefs and the British Crown. The original documents are held by the National Library. Learn more: https://t.co/c6FsIHVNtU

📸Mark Beatty/@NLNZ

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

Arguably the most intelligent photo ever taken:
Solvay Conference on quantum mechanics at the Institute International de Physique Solvay, Brussels, Belgium, in 1927. 17 of the 29 attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners. ✍️

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@patel_javed @UKinCroatia 🍀🎄🥳

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Before the holy night of #Christmas, find one person with whom to make peace. This will be a more precious gift than any that can be bought, because peace is a gift found only in the heart.

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

#NewgrangeSolstice Since 3200 B.C. marking new year'start👇☀️🥳

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@patel_javed @zagreb_tourist @UKinCroatia 🍀🎄 and happy new 🍾🍀 year!

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@patel_javed @IrlEmbCroatia 🐦🐦🙃🤣

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

The best 🎄🥳🍾🎀💚🇮🇪 in the city🥳🥳🥳🥳
Baileys,🖤 🍻, 🥃and best people🥳❤️🥰

[Embassy of Ireland @IrlEmbCroatia]

It is a packed house for our Christmas 🎄 party at the Residence of @IEAmbZagreb this evening!

Our rendition of "Joy to the World" will be heard on Ban Jelačić Square.

[Embassy of Ireland @IrlEmbCroatia]

It is a packed house for our Christmas 🎄 party at the Residence of @IEAmbZagreb this evening!

Our rendition of "Joy to the World" will be heard on Ban Jelačić Square.

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@IrlEmbCroatia And the same ones were last to leave!
Proper 🇮🇪 way!
BTW Love the 💚☝️🎀

[New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade @MFATNZ]

Today we celebrate the core values of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – equality, justice, freedom and dignity for everyone.

“We must reconnect with human rights, remembering that they are about people – about their needs, wants and fears, as well as their hopes and aspirations” ~Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Learn more here ➡️https://t.co/3IcNTuj9KB

📸: @UNHumanRights

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

30,000 hours of footage, equivalent to 3 years and 7 months, were filmed to capture the blooming of 77 types of flowers….and the result is spectacular.

[EU Council @EUCouncil]

🎂 Today we celebrate 25 years of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights!

📜 As the EU’s ‘bill of rights’, the charter enshrines 54 political, social and economic rights that belong to everyone in the EU.

Find out more ➡️https://t.co/ugSfnmAv9G

#EUCHARTER2🎂 Today we celebrate 25 years of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights!

📜 As the EU’s ‘bill of rights’, the charter enshrines 54 political, social and economic rights that belong to everyone in the EU.

Find out more ➡️https://t.co/ugSfnmAv9G

#EUCHARTER2🎂 Today we celebrate 25 years of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights!

📜 As the EU’s ‘bill of rights’, the charter enshrines 54 political, social and economic rights that belong to everyone in the EU.

Find out more ➡️https://t.co/ugSfnmAv9G

#EUCHARTER2🎂 Today we celebrate 25 years of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights!

📜 As the EU’s ‘bill of rights’, the charter enshrines 54 political, social and economic rights that belong to everyone in the EU.

Find out more ➡️https://t.co/ugSfnmAv9G

#EUCHARTER2🎂 Today we celebrate 25 years of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights!

📜 As the EU’s ‘bill of rights’, the charter enshrines 54 political, social and economic rights that belong to everyone in the EU.

Find out more ➡️https://t.co/ugSfnmAv9G

#EUCHARTER25

[Marijana Šarolić Robić @maresarka1]

@patel_javed @UKinCroatia 🇭🇷🇬🇧🚀🥳