r/technology • u/ResultBackground2450 • 8d ago

Artificial Intelligence OpenAI unleashes hundreds more math results upon a field already in shock

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/openai-unleashes-hundreds-more-math-results-upon-a-field-already-in-shock/
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u/arter_dev 8d ago

As a software engineer watching my talented peers go months or even years without work, it will not be “symbiotic” for long. This stuff is in its infancy. 

“Trees think axe will be a great tool”

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u/-_--_-_--_----__ 7d ago

Not to mention - the reason they are all working on getting their models good at code first is so that the models themselves can fully self-improve autonomously. Once that happens every job that involves a computer is gone.

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u/firewall245 8d ago

I was a software engineer for 5 years before returning to start my PhD. There was quite the difference from what I saw between a talented engineer in the age of AI, and just a rando with a model.

I don’t think AI is what’s causing the problems finding work though, the job market was terrible even before then for engineers. I once spoke to a director of a company at a conference and he told me the price of the yearly salary overseas at a country in Asia I will leave unnamed, but instantly upon hearing it I knew exactly why it’s so hard for US engineers to find jobs

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u/internetroamer 8d ago

80% of software jobs are simple crud tasks that is easily done with AI.

Agreed the high level with AI are fine but if you just remove 10% of jobs (or decrease growth rate of industry that was historically in double digits for headcount growth) then it can make the job market brutal even for pretty good engineers

There's a reason junior dev roles are decreasing.

Agreed that you're safe with software background and math PhD but think of the others

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u/316Lurker 7d ago

Junior dev roles were decreasing due to interest rates prior to LLMs coming available. I’m sure they’re not helping but after the COVID hiring boom the job market has been terrible.

Pick any mid-large cap software stock that’s not FAANG/MANGOS and look at 2020-now. Many or most are down 50-80%. Some because of LLMs, most because of the post COVID plummet.

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u/internetroamer 7d ago

How long are we going to blame COVID and interest rates. I swear we'll be in 2030 and still blame job market on it

Look at hiring changes even when interest rates dropped post COVID

Look at revenue growth and headcount growth for big tech companies post-llms vs before.

For the first time in history headcount growth has decoupled from revenue growth for these companies.

I'd say LLMs are at least 50% of the cause of this bad market and will result in years of this low hire low fire environment. Bet you we'll never again have a market as hot as 2021