#work automation

[cherryblossomshadow]

#oh look it's my feelings about the current AI boom #automation can improve life if the wealthy and powerful are not the ones that controls what gets automated #and if we let go of the notion of the 40 hour workweek (tags courtesy of @zanzibarhamster)

.

This and also respect work that humans enjoy doing. Creative work, problem solving, working with plants and animals and other people, raising a family or caring for elders, etc. Let us thrive in work that is fulfilling and find the time to do so thanks to the automation that assists us. (comment courtesy of @rum-and-shattered-dreams)

.

This is literally what the actual source-of-the-name Luddites advocated. It is in fact what they lived Centuries of improvement in loom technology slowly reduced the working hours of weavers down from something like 50 hours a week to something more like low 30s.

What changed was that business entrepreneurs realized they could make incredibly low quality cloth with machine looms which didn’t require any more still than a child could have. So in places where the regulations were weak, they enslaved orphan children and force them to work 16-hour days pretty soon low quality cloth which they use the variety of false pretenses and unethical fiscal strongarming to sell it as if it was worth the same as high quality cloth.

This wasn’t even particularly effective, the vast majority of those machine room owners went out of business. But it was an enticing enough possibility for the capitalists in Britain that entire regions saw so many people go out of work that there was widespread starvation. The quality of cloth went down and never came back up, modern cloth is still of lower quality than the handmade stuff used to be despite the ostensibly higher threadcount (threadcount is not the end all be all of quality). And the amount of human labor involved is not actually substantially reduced. The limitations of machine weaving mean that more sewing is necessary than ever, and all of that is done by hand in sweatshops.

The Luddites absolutely had the right idea, and they lived it. Their work wasn’t always easy, but by and large they described liking their lives, feeling a sense of pride in their trade, and had good qualities of life. And they sunk the benefits of their productivity, as technology improved, into a combination of reduced work hours and better quality of life. (Though it is important to note that as being a weaver improved in terms of job quality the work was increasingly transferred out of women’s spheres and into men’s spheres. This was not a social structure devoid of oppression.)

So yeah. Read Blood In The Machine if you want to know more it’s a really good book. (comment courtesy of @crazy-pages)

.

Yep. "Luddite" is a term of ridicule only in the sense that socialist, communist or union are: they were opposed to the enshittification of their day, and wanted the advancement of human knowledge and productivity to go towards reducing the burdens of life rather than into some murderer's pocket. (comment courtesy of @aquietwhyme)

.

Absolutely.

It even plugs into Calvinism: Very little of what we call work brings us any closer to the Kingdom of God. But doing math? making art? gardening? running institutions justly and fairly? That's not only work, it's the best and most productive kind. And if it's something you love, you'll do it better, longer, than if you were just worried about having your family on your health insurance policy.

In addition, there are a lot of good and necessary jobs that are poorly regarded and badly compensated. That needs to change. The idea that the people we need should be treated poorly, and the people we don't should be abundantly rewarded, comes from diseased thinking. (comment courtesy of @raleigh-straight)

.

Yes, but the idea that leisure is wrong and that we must work constantly is driven largely by religion. That's where the concept is leisure as a sin comes from.

Every time I've heard someone dismiss the concept of a universal basic income, shorter work weeks, or any plan that would reduce how much people are forced to work, the excuses are always based in the persons faith. That we must work or we inevitably will fall to sin and do bad things. Or however they want to rephrase the concept.

That's the dragon we must slay first, if we want to find a path to a better world. (comment courtesy of @thenightgaunt)

.

It’s stunning, in archaeology, to realize that if you find a place which would have been accessible to people 10,000 years ago, and which has by whatever chance been preserved since that time, there’s a high chance that you will find art from that time.

Now, it’s possible that people back then were very selective about where they put their art, certainly. But it beggars the imagination, it does, to think that they only saw fit to chip rock petroglyphs in an inhospitable desert, only made paintings in a handful of caves, only scratched out their memories in tucked-away rock shelters.

It seems vastly more likely that, given time and opportunity, people simply made art as often as they could. That there is an inherent impulse to learn, grow, and create; anything other than those things should be viewed as a distraction.

Yet, in our modern times, while in theory we could easily exist in considerable luxury, instead there are those who make great effort to assure the majority of people devote the majority of their time to toil, for no tangible value to anyone at all. One might even go so far as to suggest that the actual goal of this is to blunt that human desire to grow and create. That what they truly fear is a world in which every person is free to pursue beyond the needs of food and shelter and health, to contribute to humanity in a way which has the potential to change our world rather than merely maintaining it. (comment courtesy of @hasufin)

.

Based on historical evidence that we do have, I see no reason to think that pre-historical people who were as human as we are, biologically, wouldn't have done the same things as we do, re: art all over. So yeah, they probably did paint outside and carve trees and decorate trade routes and whatever, but it's just the hidden away stuff that's lasted this long*.

I 100% believe that squashing that impulse is baked into how we're currently living now, same as how schools work is meant to train up good employees rather than people who know how to think and learn well, etc.

if time travel is ever invented, I want someone to go back and check this for me, and take pictures. I bet they hung things from trees and painted way-markers and carved totems and painted themselves and all sorts of stuff. (comment courtesy of @samiholloway)

.

Don't forget how addictive control over the lives of people is. (comment courtesy of @antarctica-starts-here)

.

[Image 1 ID: A quote by Lord Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick.

If one machine can cut necessary human labour by half, why make half the workforce redundant, rather than employing the same number for half the time? Why not take advantage of automation to reduce the average working week from 40 hours to 30, and then to 20, and then to 10, with each diminishing block of labour time counting as a full-time job? This would be possible if the gains from automation were not mostly seized by the rich and powerful, but were distributed fairly instead. Rather than try to repel the advance of the machine, which is all that the Luddites could imagine, we should prepare for a future of more leisure, which automation makes possible. But, to do that, we first need a revolution in social thinking.

/end ID]

.

[Image 2 ID: A quote by Buckminster Fuller, 1970

We must do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living It is a fact today that 1 in 10,000 can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody must be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian-Darwinian theory, we must justify our right to exist The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they have to earn a living

/end ID]

.

[Image 3 ID: Two panel comic of a man in front of a workplace full of robots operating the computers. In the first panel, the man is crouched over on the curb, bemoaning:

Damn, a robot took over my job! Now I have to look for a new source of monetary income…

In the second panel, the man has his arms raised to the heavens triumphantly crowing:

Yay! A robot took over my job! Now I am free to actually enjoy life!

/end ID]

[widedevsolution1]

AI Tools That Will Replace 80% of Your Work in 2025

In today’s fast-evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence is not just a trend — it’s a transformative force that’s reshaping how businesses operate. From automating repetitive tasks to boosting decision-making, AI tools are now capable of replacing up to 80% of the routine work done by humans. For business owners, freelancers, and teams, this means more time for strategy, creativity, and growth.

In this guide, we’ll explore the top AI productivity tools in 2025 that can help automate your daily workflow, increase efficiency, and keep you ahead of the competition. Whether you’re a startup, agency, or enterprise, these tools — many of which are featured and integrated into WideDev Solution — will give you the edge you need in today’s AI-first world.

Why AI Is the New Workforce

Before diving into the tools, let’s understand why AI software for work automation is becoming indispensable:

Reduces manual workload by up to 80%

Increases productivity without increasing staff

Improves accuracy in tasks like data entry, writing, and analysis

Enhances scalability with fewer human bottlenecks

Whether you’re working solo or managing a team, AI-powered business tools are not replacing humans — they’re augmenting human capability.

Top AI Tools That Will Automate Your Workflow

1. ChatGPT by OpenAI – The Brain of Your Operations

ChatGPT is no longer just a chatbot. With its latest updates, it functions as a full-scale AI productivity assistant that can:

Write and summarize emails

Generate reports

Draft marketing content

Automate coding tasks

Why it matters: ChatGPT can manage a wide range of tasks across industries — from content marketing to software development. It integrates seamlessly with platforms like Slack, Notion, and Zapier.

Keyword to target: AI for daily business tasks

2. Notion AI – Your Smart Workspace

Notion AI enhances one of the most flexible productivity platforms with AI that:

Summarizes notes and documents

Drafts blogs and meeting minutes

Suggests task prioritization

Manages content calendars

Why it matters: Teams using Notion AI cut planning and content creation time by half. It’s especially valuable for digital marketers, content creators, and remote teams.

Keyword to target: AI content planning tool

3. Jasper – Your Marketing Team’s Best Friend

Jasper is a powerful AI copywriting tool used by marketing teams to write:

Blog posts

Product descriptions

Email campaigns

Ad copy

It supports multiple tones, languages, and styles, which makes it a favorite among agencies and eCommerce brands.

Why it matters: Instead of hiring multiple writers, Jasper can handle bulk content creation with minimal editing.

Keyword to target: AI content generator for marketers

4. GrammarlyGO – Write with Confidence

GrammarlyGO, the AI-enhanced version of Grammarly, now goes beyond grammar. It:

Suggests rewrites based on tone

Helps generate ideas from prompts

Personalizes writing style

Fixes clarity and conciseness

Why it matters: Business owners and teams can write with professional polish in less time.

Trending keyword: AI-powered writing assistant

5. Zapier + AI – Automate Repetitive Tasks Without Code

Zapier allows you to connect your apps and services to automate workflows. Now with AI integration, it:

Suggests automations (“Zaps”)

Uses natural language to create tasks

Connects with OpenAI for smarter workflows

Why it matters: You can automate lead generation, email follow-ups, task creation, and more — without writing a single line of code.

Keyword to target: no-code AI automation

6. Fireflies.ai – Meeting Notes Without the Headache

Fireflies.ai is a voice-to-text AI tool that automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes your meetings.

Best uses:

Team meetings

Sales calls

Online interviews

Why it matters: Fireflies saves hours every week by eliminating the need for manual note-taking.

Keyword to target: AI meeting transcription tool

7. Otter.ai – Real-Time Voice-to-Text AI

If you’re working in academia, journalism, or research, Otter.ai is a must-have. It:

Transcribes conversations live

Highlights keywords

Offers searchable transcripts

Identifies speakers automatically

Why it matters: Otter helps with documentation, compliance, and accessibility.

Keyword to target: real-time AI transcription

8. Midjourney – AI for Visual Content

Visual content creation often takes time and talent. Midjourney is an AI design tool that generates high-quality artwork, graphics, and illustrations using just text prompts.

Why it matters: Whether you’re building a website or launching a campaign, Midjourney cuts visual design time from days to minutes.

Keyword to target: AI graphic design tools

9. Reclaim AI – Smart Calendar Management

Reclaim AI helps you reclaim your time by intelligently scheduling meetings, breaks, and task blocks.

Key Features:

Auto-schedules tasks around your calendar

Protects deep work time

Syncs work/life balance

Why it matters: It ensures you always have time to actually get work done.

Keyword to target: AI calendar assistant

10. Trello + Butler AI – AI-Enhanced Project Management

Trello, with its Butler AI automation, allows users to create rule-based actions in project boards.

Auto-assign tasks

Create due date reminders

Trigger workflows based on card activity

Why it matters: It reduces the need for micromanagement and repetitive PM tasks.

Keyword to target: AI project management tool

Use AI Tools + WideDev Solution for the Ultimate Workflow

At WideDev Solution, we specialize in AI tool integration for businesses. Whether you need help automating internal processes or want to build custom AI solutions tailored to your operations, we can help you:

✅ Choose the best AI tools for business productivity ✅ Set up automation workflows ✅ Provide training and support ✅ Customize AI models for niche tasks

Want to see how much of your workflow you can automate? Let’s do an audit. Visit https://widedevsolution.com/ and explore our AI implementation services.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Compete With AI, Collaborate With It

Instead of fearing job displacement, think of AI tools as collaborators that give you superpowers. They let you focus on what really matters: strategy, creativity, and human connection.

The sooner you integrate AI work automation tools, the faster your business will grow — and the more time you’ll free up to innovate, build, and lead.

[inkskinned]

i have chronic pain. i am neurodivergent. i understand - deeply - the allure of a "quick fix" like AI. i also just grew up in a different time. we have been warned about this.

15 entire years ago i heard about this. in my forensics class in high school, we watched a documentary about how AI-based "crime solving" software was inevitably biased against people of color.

my teacher stressed that AI is like a book: when someone writes it, some part of the author will remain within the result. the internet existed but not as loudly at that point - we didn't know that AI would be able to teach itself off already-biased Reddit threads. i googled it: yes, this bias is still happening. yes, it's just as bad if not worse.

i can't actually stop you. if you wanna use ChatGPT to slide through your classes, that's on you. it's your money and it's your time. you will spend none of it thinking, you will learn nothing, and, in college, you will piss away hundreds of thousands of dollars. you will stand at the podium having done nothing, accomplished nothing. a cold and bitter pyrrhic victory.

i'm not even sure students actually read the essays or summaries or emails they have ChatGPT pump out. i think it just flows over them and they use the first answer they get. my brother teaches engineering - he recently got fifty-three copies of almost-the-exact-same lab reports. no one had even changed the wording.

and yes: AI itself (as a concept and practice) isn't always evil. there's AI that can help detect cancer, for example. and yet: when i ask my students if they'd be okay with a doctor that learned from AI, many of them balk. it is one thing if they don't read their engineering textbook or if they don't write the critical-thinking essay. it's another when it starts to affect them. they know it's wrong for AI to broad-spectrum deny insurance claims, but they swear their use of AI is different.

there's a strange desire to sort of divorce real-world AI malpractice over "personal use". for example, is it moral to use AI to write your cover letters? cover letters are essentially only templates, and besides: AI is going to be reading your job app, so isn't it kind of fair?

i recently found out that people use AI as a romantic or sexual partner. it seems like teenagers particularly enjoy this connection, and this is one of those "sticky" moments as a teacher. honestly - you can roast me for this - but if it was an actually-safe AI, i think teenagers exploring their sexuality with a fake partner is amazing. it prevents them from making permanent mistakes, it can teach them about their bodies and their desires, and it can help their confidence. but the problem is that it's not safe. there isn't a well-educated, sensitive AI specifically to help teens explore their hormones. it's just internet-fed cycle. who knows what they're learning. who knows what misinformation they're getting.

the most common pushback i get involves therapy. none of us have access to the therapist of our dreams - it's expensive, elusive, and involves an annoying amount of insurance claims. someone once asked me: are you going to be mad when AI saves someone's life?

therapists are not just trained on the book, they're trained on patient management and helping you see things you don't see yourself. part of it will involve discomfort. i don't know that AI is ever going to be able to analyze the words you feed it and answer with a mind towards the "whole person" writing those words. but also - if it keeps/kept you alive, i'm not a purist. i've done terrible things to myself when i was at rock bottom. in an emergency, we kind of forgive the seatbelt for leaving bruises. it's just that chat shouldn't be your only form of self-care and recovery.

and i worry that the influence chat has is expanding. more and more i see people use chat for the smallest, most easily-navigated situations. and i can't like, make you worry about that in your own life. i often think about how easy it was for social media to take over all my time - how i can't have a tiktok because i spend hours on it. i don't want that to happen with chat. i want to enjoy thinking. i want to enjoy writing. i want to be here. i've already really been struggling to put the phone down. this feels like another way to get you to pick the phone up.

the other day, i was frustrated by a book i was reading. it's far in the series and is about a character i resent. i googled if i had to read it, or if it was one of those "in between" books that don't actually affect the plot (you know, one of those ".5" books). someone said something that really stuck with me - theoretically you're reading this series for enjoyment, so while you don't actually have to read it, one would assume you want to read it.

i am watching a generation of people learn they don't have to read the thing in their hand. and it is kind of a strange sort of doom that comes over me: i read because it's genuinely fun. i learn because even though it's hard, it feels good. i try because it makes me happy to try. and i'm watching a generation of people all lay down and say: but i don't want to try.

[itechindia]

Understanding the Key Differences Between Business Process Automation (BPA) and Workflow Automation

In today's fast-paced business landscape, efficiency and productivity are key drivers of success. To achieve these goals, many organizations turn to automation. However, when it comes to streamlining operations, there's often some confusion between two commonly used terms: Business Process Automation (BPA) and Workflow Automation. While both aim to automate processes, they serve distinct purposes and have unique characteristics. In this blog post, we'll delve into the differences between BPA and Workflow Automation to help you better understand when and how to implement them in your organization. Defining BPA and Workflow Automation

Business Process Automation (BPA): Business Process Automation is a comprehensive approach to optimizing and automating a series of interconnected tasks, activities, and workflows within an organization. BPA aims to enhance efficiency, reduce human errors, and streamline complex business processes by leveraging technology.

Workflow Automation: Workflow Automation, on the other hand, is a narrower concept that focuses on automating specific sequences of tasks or steps within a process. Workflow Automation primarily deals with routing, tracking, and managing tasks and information through predefined rules and logic.

Comparing BPA and Workflow Automation:

Now that we've defined both BPA and Workflow Automation, let's compare them to highlight their differences:

1. Scope:

BPA encompasses entire business processes.

Workflow Automation targets specific tasks or steps within a process.

2. Complexity:

BPA is suitable for complex processes requiring integration and coordination across various systems.

Workflow Automation is more straightforward and suited for routine tasks.

3. Strategic vs. Tactical:

BPA aligns with an organization's strategic goals.

Workflow Automation focuses on tactical efficiency gains.

4. Data Usage:

BPA heavily relies on data analysis to optimize processes.

Workflow Automation uses data to improve task-specific activities.

5. Implementation Effort:

BPA often requires more significant IT investments and time for implementation.

Workflow Automation solutions can be implemented more swiftly and with fewer resources.

Conclusion

In summary, Business Process Automation (BPA) and Workflow Automation are two distinct approaches to automating business operations. BPA takes a holistic view, optimizing entire processes and supporting complex decision-making, while Workflow Automation focuses on automating individual tasks within a process. Understanding these differences is crucial for selecting the right automation solution to meet your organization's needs. Both BPA and Workflow Automation have their place in streamlining operations and improving efficiency, and choosing the right one depends on your specific goals and requirements.

[evanzzz3]

been getting really into l4d lately

[bixels]

As cameras becomes more normalized (Sarah Bernhardt encouraging it, grifters on the rise, young artists using it), I wanna express how I will never turn to it because it fundamentally bores me to my core. There is no reason for me to want to use cameras because I will never want to give up my autonomy in creating art. I never want to become reliant on an inhuman object for expression, least of all if that object is created and controlled by manufacturing companies. I paint not because I want a painting but because I love the process of painting. So even in a future where everyone’s accepted it, I’m never gonna sway on this.

if i have to explain to you that using a camera to take a picture is not the same as using generative ai to generate an image then you are a fucking moron.

[cubbihue]

Question ...if fairies rely on desire to feed,would Dev be a GOOD food source or a terrible food source? Does desire come from wishing or wanting more, essentially. Because dev like.. Has all he can want except his dad's approval ,so how does that work?

Fairies' food comes from the innate emotion a person has while Wishes are just the only way Fairies can pull the emotions (food) out!!!

The more the desire is out of reach, the more delicious it is, and the longer the fairy can go without needing another meal. It's simply easier to harvest from children because they have big emotions, and weak minds and impulses. A child can say "I wish" more openly than an adult does, making it easier for Fairies to cultivate.

Dev's one of the best food sources there is. In fact, he's able to feed a family of 5 for at least 8 months! However, he's also one of the worse sources to collect from because his desire is noncollectable by magic.

Which means you'll need an expert high-class, high-ranking Fairy Godparent who can siphon out his Desires into smaller parts via multiple smaller wishes!

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI’s productivity theater

Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!

When I took my kid to New Zealand with me on a book-tour, I was delighted to learn that grocery stores had special aisles where all the kids'-eye-level candy had been removed, to minimize nagging. What a great idea!

Related: countries around the world limit advertising to children, for two reasons:

1) Kids may not be stupid, but they are inexperienced, and that makes them gullible; and

2) Kids don't have money of their own, so their path to getting the stuff they see in ads is nagging their parents, which creates a natural constituency to support limits on kids' advertising (nagged parents).

There's something especially annoying about ads targeted at getting credulous people to coerce or torment other people on behalf of the advertiser. For example, AI companies spent millions targeting your boss in an effort to convince them that you can be replaced with a chatbot that absolutely, positively cannot do your job.

Your boss has no idea what your job entails, and is (not so) secretly convinced that you're a featherbedding parasite who only shows up for work because you fear the breadline, and not because your job is a) challenging, or b) rewarding:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

That makes them prime marks for chatbot-peddling AI pitchmen. Your boss would love to fire you and replace you with a chatbot. Chatbots don't unionize, they don't backtalk about stupid orders, and they don't experience any inconvenient moral injury when ordered to enshittify the product:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

Bosses are Bizarro-world Marxists. Like Marxists, your boss's worldview is organized around the principle that every dollar you take home in wages is a dollar that isn't available for executive bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends. That's why you boss is insatiably horny for firing you and replacing you with software. Software is cheaper, and it doesn't advocate for higher wages.

That makes your boss such an easy mark for AI pitchmen, which explains the vast gap between the valuation of AI companies and the utility of AI to the customers that buy those companies' products. As an investor, buying shares in AI might represent a bet the usefulness of AI – but for many of those investors, backing an AI company is actually a bet on your boss's credulity and contempt for you and your job.

But bosses' resemblance to toddlers doesn't end with their credulity. A toddler's path to getting that eye-height candy-bar goes through their exhausted parents. Your boss's path to realizing the productivity gains promised by an AI salesman runs through you.

A new research report from the Upwork Research Institute offers a look into the bizarre situation unfolding in workplaces where bosses have been conned into buying AI and now face the challenge of getting it to work as advertised:

https://www.upwork.com/research/ai-enhanced-work-models

The headline findings tell the whole story:

96% of bosses expect that AI will make their workers more productive;

85% of companies are either requiring or strongly encouraging workers to use AI;

49% of workers have no idea how AI is supposed to increase their productivity;

77% of workers say using AI decreases their productivity.

Working at an AI-equipped workplaces is like being the parent of a furious toddler who has bought a million Sea Monkey farms off the back page of a comic book, and is now destroying your life with demands that you figure out how to get the brine shrimp he ordered from a notorious Holocaust denier to wear little crowns like they do in the ad:

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2004/hitler-and-sea-monkeys

Bosses spend a lot of time thinking about your productivity. The "productivity paradox" shows a rapid, persistent decline in American worker productivity, starting in the 1970s and continuing to this day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productivity_paradox

The "paradox" refers to the growth of IT, which is sold as a productivity-increasing miracle. There are many theories to explain this paradox. One especially good theory came from the late David Graeber (rest in power), in his 2012 essay, "Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit":

https://thebaffler.com/salvos/of-flying-cars-and-the-declining-rate-of-profit

Graeber proposes that the growth of IT was part of a wider shift in research approaches. Research was once dominated by weirdos (e.g. Jack Parsons, Oppenheimer, etc) who operated with relatively little red tape. The rise of IT coincides with the rise of "managerialism," the McKinseyoid drive to monitor, quantify and – above all – discipline the workforce. IT made it easier to generate these records, which also made it normal to expect these records.

Before long, every employee – including the "creatives" whose ideas were credited with the productivity gains of the American century until the 70s – was spending a huge amount of time (sometimes the majority of their working days) filling in forms, documenting their work, and generally producing a legible account of their day's work. All this data gave rise to a ballooning class of managers, who colonized every kind of institution – not just corporations, but also universities and government agencies, which were structured to resemble corporations (down to referring to voters or students as "customers").

Even if you think all that record-keeping might be useful, there's no denying that the more time you spend documenting your work, the less time you have to do your work. The solution to this was inevitably more IT, sold as a way to make the record-keeping easier. But adding IT to a bureaucracy is like adding lanes to a highway: the easier it is to demand fine-grained record-keeping, the more record-keeping will be demanded of you.

But that's not all that IT did for the workplace. There are a couple areas in which IT absolutely increased the profitability of the companies that invested in it.

First, IT allowed corporations to outsource production to low-waged countries in the global south, usually places with worse labor protection, weaker environmental laws, and easily bribed regulators. It's really hard to produce things in factories thousands of miles away, or to oversee remote workers in another country. But IT makes it possible to annihilate distance, time zone gaps, and language barriers. Corporations that figured out how to use IT to fire workers at home and exploit workers and despoil the environment in distant lands thrived. Executives who oversaw these projects rose through the ranks. For example, Tim Cook became the CEO of Apple thanks to his successes in moving production out of the USA and into China.

https://archive.is/M17qq

Outsourcing provided a sugar high that compensated for declining productivity…for a while. But eventually, all the gains to be had from outsourcing were realized, and companies needed a new source of cheap gains. That's where "bossware" came in: the automation of workforce monitoring and discipline. Bossware made it possible to monitor workers at the finest-grained levels, measuring everything from keystrokes to eyeball movements.

What's more, the declining power of the American worker – a nice bonus of the project to fire huge numbers of workers and ship their jobs overseas, which made the remainder terrified of losing their jobs and thus willing to eat a rasher of shit and ask for seconds – meant that bossware could be used to tie wages to metrics. It's not just gig workers who don't score consistent five star ratings from app users whose pay gets docked – it's also creative workers whose Youtube and Tiktok wages are cut for violating rules that they aren't allowed to know, because that might help them break the rules without being detected and punished:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

Bossware dominates workplaces from public schools to hospitals, restaurants to call centers, and extends to your home and car, if you're working from home (AKA "living at work") or driving for Uber or Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/02/chickenized-by-arise/#arise

In providing a pretense for stealing wages, IT can increase profits, even as it reduces productivity:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

One way to think about how this works is through the automation-theory metaphor of a "centaur" and a "reverse centaur." In automation circles, a "centaur" is someone who is assisted by an automation tool – for example, when your boss uses AI to monitor your eyeballs in order to find excuses to steal your wages, they are a centaur, a human head atop a machine body that does all the hard work, far in excess of any human's capacity.

A "reverse centaur" is a worker who acts as an assistant to an automation system. The worker who is ridden by an AI that monitors their eyeballs, bathroom breaks, and keystrokes is a reverse centaur, being used (and eventually, used up) by a machine to perform the tasks that the machine can't perform unassisted:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

But there's only so much work you can squeeze out of a human in this fashion before they are ruined for the job. Amazon's internal research reveals that the company has calculated that it ruins workers so quickly that it is in danger of using up every able-bodied worker in America:

https://www.vox.com/recode/23170900/leaked-amazon-memo-warehouses-hiring-shortage

Which explains the other major findings from the Upwork study:

81% of bosses have increased the demands they make on their workers over the past year; and

71% of workers are "burned out."

Bosses' answer to "AI making workers feel burned out" is the same as "IT-driven form-filling makes workers unproductive" – do more of the same, but go harder. Cisco has a new product that tries to detect when workers are about to snap after absorbing abuse from furious customers and then gives them a "Zen" moment in which they are showed a "soothing" photo of their family:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ai-bringing-zen-first-horizons-192010166.html

This is just the latest in a series of increasingly sweaty and cruel "workplace wellness" technologies that spy on workers and try to help them "manage their stress," all of which have the (totally predictable) effect of increasing workplace stress:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

The only person who wouldn't predict that being closely monitored by an AI that snitches on you to your boss would increase your stress levels is your boss. Unfortunately for you, AI pitchmen know this, too, and they're more than happy to sell your boss the reverse-centaur automation tool that makes you want to die, and then sell your boss another automation tool that is supposed to restore your will to live.

The "productivity paradox" is being resolved before our eyes. American per-worker productivity fell because it was more profitable to ship American jobs to regulatory free-fire zones and exploit the resulting precarity to abuse the workers left onshore. Workers who resented this arrangement were condemned for having a shitty "work ethic" – even as the number of hours worked by the average US worker rose by 13% between 1976 and 2016:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

AI is just a successor gimmick at the terminal end of 40 years of increasing profits by taking them out of workers' hides rather than improving efficiency. That arrangement didn't come out of nowhere: it was a direct result of a Reagan-era theory of corporate power called "consumer welfare." Under the "consumer welfare" approach to antitrust, monopolies were encouraged, provided that they used their market power to lower wages and screw suppliers, while lowering costs to consumers.

"Consumer welfare" supposed that we could somehow separate our identities as "workers" from our identities as "shoppers" – that our stagnating wages and worsening conditions ceased mattering to us when we clocked out at 5PM (or, you know, 9PM) and bought a $0.99 Meal Deal at McDonald's whose low, low price was only possible because it was cooked by someone sleeping in their car and collecting food-stamps.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/20/disneyland-workers-anaheim-california-authorize-strike

But we're reaching the end of the road for consumer welfare. Sure, your toddler-boss can be tricked into buying AI and firing half of your co-workers and demanding that the remainder use AI to do their jobs. But if AI can't do their jobs (it can't), no amount of demanding that you figure out how to make the Sea Monkeys act like they did in the comic-book ad is doing to make that work.

As screwing workers and suppliers produces fewer and fewer gains, companies are increasingly turning on their customers. It's not just that you're getting worse service from chatbots or the humans who are reverse-centaured into their workflow. You're also paying more for that, as algorithmic surveillance pricing uses automation to gouge you on prices in realtime:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

This is – in the memorable phrase of David Dayen and Lindsay Owens, the "age of recoupment," in which companies end their practice of splitting the gains from suppressing labor with their customers:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-03-age-of-recoupment/

It's a bet that the tolerance for monopolies made these companies too big to fail, and that means they're too big to jail, so they can cheat their customers as well as their workers.

AI may be a bet that your boss can be suckered into buying a chatbot that can't do your job, but investors are souring on that bet. Goldman Sachs, who once trumpeted AI as a multi-trillion dollar sector with unlimited growth, is now publishing reports describing how companies who buy AI can't figure out what to do with it:

https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/pages/gs-research/gen-ai-too-much-spend-too-little-benefit/report.pdf

Fine, investment banks are supposed to be a little conservative. But VCs? They're the ones with all the appetite for risk, right? Well, maybe so, but Sequoia Capital, a top-tier Silicon Valley VC, is also publicly questioning whether anyone will make AI investments pay off:

https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/ais-600b-question/

I can't tell you how great it was to take my kid down a grocery checkout aisle from which all the eye-level candy had been removed. Alas, I can't figure out how we keep the nation's executive toddlers from being dazzled by shiny AI pitches that leave us stuck with the consequences of their impulse purchases.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/25/accountability-sinks/#work-harder-not-smarter

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[ventique18]

Random thought

I just know 🐉 would copy Cater's signature spell to create an autonomous body double whose only purpose is to work. Just so his paperwork would still get done while he fucks off with you to some country or another. He'd also make a copy of you, of course, but that one's kinda brain dead and does nothing but read cheesy novels beside his double or crochet animal amigurumi or some other shit.

For some reason, the people in the castle never catch on. They don't really bother him while he works, so they just glance at the body double in admiration because it never even stands up to drink water or go to the restroom. They just conclude that their king is an actual god who doesn't need to eat, sleep, or piss. They knew it; the Draconias really were gods.

But Silver and Sebek know, of course. They know him more than anyone, and they know you too. So they also know that you love each other very much and you deserve all the alone time together that you could afford. So they pretend that nothing's wrong.

But they can't help their minds from wandering sometimes though...

If your body doubles were somehow able to... Make love. And reproduce. What would be of their child? Would that be considered a royal heir? What complications could come of such an odd conflict? Could they somehow overthrow the real ones and snatch the throne for themselves?

For everyone's sake... They just hope their lord made sure not to give the doubles reproductive organs.

[willwoodwithadditionalgrapejuice]

for more information please dial (248) 434-5508 😇

i was bored at work so, KAYNE SELLING COCAINE COKAYNE!!

Text:

“IF YOU EXPERIENCE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Saddness, blindess, back pain, terminal illness, cancer, autism, dyslexia, left-hand-syndrome, regret, happiness, depression, fatigue, foggy memory, derealization, depersonalization, dehydration, headaches, fever, flu, the plague, irritation, lack of memories, too many memories, fear, lost of self, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, madness, arthur-itis, haha get it?,madness, madness, madness, lost sense of time, euphoria, pain, nostalgia, deja vu, boredom, not enough bones, too many bones, just the right amount of bones, no head, <- (get your mind out of the gutter), no synpathy, too much sympathy, british, mania, dysphoria, orphan-Syndrome, alcholism, christianity, atheism, no face, believing in a smiling god, beliefs, morals, steven johnson syndrome, ADHD, OCD, DID, ABC, humanity, sadism, no insurance :(, owning a car, having a hairless cat, gay thoughts, (gay), intrusive thoughts, no thoughts, too many thoughts.

THEN CONSIDER COKAYNE! THE FUTURE OF MEDICNE!!!”

[bethanydelleman]

So I watched this video about collecting rejections as rocks in a jar and I couldn't help thinking that I wish I had more rejections which is kind of weird but

When you job search these days, it feels like screaming into a void. You almost never get rejected, you just don't hear anything. I find it weirdly difficult emotionally because you can't help hoping that maybe you will hear, and I've gotten interviews 2 or 3 months after applying so there is precedent. You aren't able to emotionally dismiss any opportunity, because who knows?

I would much rather have a rejection and close the door. Given how all this shit is automated anyway, how hard can it be for the company to send out an email saying the position was filled? My last job hunt (about a year ago), I had two interviews in the same week and received an offer from the second one. When I emailed the first, out of courtesy, and told them I was withdrawing from consideration, they told me they had already hired someone. Can they not even email the interviewees? The lack of consideration is astounding to me.

And then HR people have the audacity to complain that people will skip interviews without notification, who treated whom without basic human decency first?

[kirby-the-gorb]

[compactdiscinteractive]

P.A.W.S.: Personal Automated Wagging System (Domestic Funk/Digital Garden/Organa, Mac/Windows/CD-i, 1995/1998)

Posted using PostyBirb

[wraithsoutlaws]

do you think there is any elitism regarding tattoo application in cyberpunk? cause we see v's tattoo being applied automatically by a ripperdoc but i have to assume that tattoo artist is still a job, if even a dying one that's slowly being replaced by machines. like even today we see artists fighting for their work and the integrity of art in general versus ai, and i know in the tattoo community there have been similar things happening re: robotics/automated application within the last few years (look up BlackDot tattoo) and i just want to know what that community is like in 2077. there must still be old school corner tattoo shops right??

[cubbihue]

So.... why'd Peri get assigned Dev as his first godchild?

Jorgen’s usually not the one in charge of assigning godchildren. There’s an entire department that weighs and classifies potentail Godkids to the right Fairy. Although it’s on strike at the moment.

So Jorgen has to do it by hand, until the union negotiations are resolved. Turns out trying to use paperclips is very hard. Itty bitty paperclips. Big muscular biceps. Not a good combo.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

Peri's Assignment: [Previous] > [Next]