This hebdomad , billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff write an op - ed cover fib in TIME magazine — an outletBenioff boughtfrom the Meredith Corporation in 2018 — in which he made the lawsuit for why the coming undulation of automation wrought by new AI technology ( like the one he is currently selling ) is , in his own words , “ a revolution that will fundamentally redefine how man work , exist , and link up with one another . ”
“ Over the past two eld , we ’ve witness advances in AI that have captured our resource with unprecedented capableness in language and cleverness , ” Benioff compose . “ And yet , as telling as these developments have been , they ’re only the possible action act . We are now go in a new geological era of independent AI agents that take activity on their own and augment the work of humans . ”
Benioff ’s essay deploys a now tired maneuver — long favored by Silicon Valley tech titan — which is to double up utopian grandiosity ( and thus , human optimism ) into an belligerent advertising strategy designed to trade software . When Steve Jobs debut the iPhone in 2007,he name to itas a “ revolutionary and wizardly intersection , ” and supporter order itwould “ vary the world . ”When Facebook first launched in 2004 , it also was said to be world - changing . Twitter , too , would budge the Earth on its axis . Crypto : same thing .
© David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
To be certain , all of these thing have “ changed the world”—though some people ’s worlds have been change more than others . The creators of these devices , for instance , are all fabulously rich , but how are the rest of us doing ?
ArtificiaI intelligence , like all of its antecedents , is now upon us , and this “ revolutionary ” new intersection is ready to “ deepen the world . ” Relevantly , Benioff sells thevery variety of softwarethat his essay is about . How does Benioff foresee his AI agents transform human life for the good ? consort to the billionaire , the principal benefit would be that the software can do Job that humankind used to do .
Benioff write : “ For the first time , engineering is n’t just offering shaft for homo to do workplace . It ’s providing sound , scalable digital DoL that do tasks autonomously . or else of wait for human input signal , agent can analyze information , make decisions , and take action severally , adapt and learning as they go . ” He go on to give an representative : “ Take , for example , a large retailer during the upcoming vacation season . Traditionally , human actor or pre - programmed package might cover client query or stock updates . But now , intelligent digital agents can respond to customer doubt in real - time , monitor stock stage , reorder inventory , and even ordinate with shipping supplier — all without human intercession . ”
To be sure , replacing workers with software seems to be what Benioff is emotional about . Ina billet on Xpromoting his essay , Benioff bragged that “ digital labor ” ( i.e. , AI ) would transmute “ productivity without growing the men . ” Roughly translated , companies can get more done with few people . Of naturally , Benioff is belike thinking about this from the C - suite view , where reduce head count ( and , thus , fewer salaries and holiday bonuses ) is a good thing .
For the rest of us , though , company with few jobs do n’t sound all that likeable . Indeed , according to federal statistic , there are currently7 million unemployed peopleliving in the United States . Millions of othersare “ underemployed , ” stuck in beat - end , lowly - pay occupation that allow little in the way of stability or trust for the future . fit in to Union statistics , there areclose to 37 million peopleliving in poverty in the U.S. More federal statistics show that the employment of doer maturate 65 or older has grown bynearly 120 percentover the past twenty old age , suggesting that many multitude are not earning enough to hit the sack .
Given all of this setting , my question to Benioff would be this : Why would you want to create an economy in which evenfeweremployment opportunities are available to people ?
Benioff ends his screed with a weirdly elliptical judgment of conviction : “ If trust is our Union star as we sail this new landscape painting , agents will empower us to make a meaningful encroachment at an unprecedented scale . ” Observe , dear lector , the horrors make by an unholy union between baffling , obfuscatory corporate - speak and a mislaid plutocratical idealism . Trust as a “ north star ” ? “ Meaningful impact ” ? “ Unprecedented scale ” ? It leaves the reader who has n’t been conciliate by Benioff ’s boring word alternative with a lot of question : Who is swear what ? What variety of “ meaningful wallop ” is going to occur , and what is being impact ?
cut through the crap , the message is likely this : If we , as Americans , trust wealthy tech oligarch like Benioff to radically transmute the economy via their coveted methods of digital “ disruption , ” we will all be meaningfully “ impacted ” at an “ unprecedented scale . ” Do n’t waste your meter wondering about the particular of aforementioned shock , just have the succeeding wash over you with all its “ revolutionary ” glory .
Artificial intelligencemarc benioffsalesfore
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