7 ms·

The preposterous notion of AI automating "repetitive" work

12 points by cadabrabra 8mo ago

This is just one of those narratives that people latch onto because it has a nice ring to it. Or maybe it’s because it makes AI sound less threatening and perhaps even palatable. “Don’t worry. AI is going to replace only the repetitive parts of your job.” But if you spend even a minute examining this narrative, then you will realize just how preposterous it is. Humans have already figured out how to automate repetitive physical and digital labor, and we’ve been doing it for decades and even centuries by using machines and computing. Simply put: If it’s repetitive, then you don’t need AI to automate it. In fact, the kinds of task we want AI to automate are precisely those that AREN’T repetitive. That was the whole god damn point of AI. How did we go from the original purpose of AI to claiming that it will do what we’ve already been doing for decades? Where do these narratives come from, and why do people fall for them?

adrianwaj 8mo ago
Well, wouldn't it be great if you had a barcode scanner next to your trashcan, and scanned everything that went into it. Then OpenClaw or something similar found the most inexpensive (and timely) replacement for it and then ordered it for you. It could also keep an inventory and work out when to hold off on the order while thinking about your stock levels, the expiry dates and perishability. It could also communicate with other Assistants in the area to get bulk discounts or arrange group deliveries. (Robotaxi or drone drop-off?) Seems like the sweetspot of "repetitive in structure" and "repetitive in specifics" as mentioned by Newzino below. The Assistant could also propose alternative products or find out what is in season and fresh. So repetitive, but also efficient and effective. Time-saving, money-saving, life-affirming. Is that too optimistic for a very common and mundane task (grocery shopping)?
tjr 8mo ago
Seeing a lot of claims about using AI to write "boilerplate" and other repetitive bits of code, I was somewhat surprised, as I have historically written my own code generation tools to spit out repetitive, formulaic code. I didn't need AI; I just needed to understand what I wanted and write a script for it. I suppose that generative AI was seen as such a boon to writing boilerplate because it could do so without you having to specifically program anything; it was trained on enough sufficiently-close examples that it could pull it off without a thorough description.
nicbou 8mo ago
I am generally skeptical about AI but I do see the benefit here. I write a bunch of widgets for my website. They're little calculators that use common components and apply simple logic. Think unit conversion or date arithmetic. These currently take a few hours to write, and most of the work is just wiring things together in a predictable way: template, tests, common form controls. I think that this would be a very good case for AI.
- jjice 8mo ago
  I've automated the writing of many of these kinds of things away with LLMs over the last year. I'd recommend giving it a shot. Another tangential use is to ask it to see if there are better abstractions that can be applied that maybe you haven't thought of yet. I find it's not the majority case that it offers a suggestion I like, but I have found it to be good some of the time. Worth the time of asking, at least.
  - nicbou 8mo ago
    This is cool! I set some time aside to experiment with it in February. If I can keep the human aspect while removing the tedium, I would be very happy.
gtsteve 8mo ago
Perhaps your supposedly unique work is more repetitive than you thought: it just has a decision tree that's difficult to model with a regular algorithm, and annoyingly, it turns out you can just brute force that decision tree if you have enough electricity. Unless your job is cutting-edge research where you are truly making new scientific discoveries and methods, you're just combining other peoples' ideas into a new unique package and selling it. The truly valuable work is to notice that there is an underserved market and figure out how to meet their needs.
paulcole 8mo ago
Use the AI to make the “machine” that does the repetitive work? I’m not a programmer but that’s what I’ve done. In the past I would’ve needed either to learn how to code or hire someone.
newzino 8mo ago
[flagged]
- tacostakohashi 8mo ago
  You _could_ write non-AI tools for those examples. That's basically what sonarqube, coverity, lint, etc... are. They might even do a better job, with better correctness and deterministic results. There are also plenty of code generation / templating tools available. Maybe there are other tasks where AI offers novel capabilities, like interacting with humans, but at least for those two examples I think a lot of people are really just distracted by the novelty of AI, and perceiving the results of non-deterministic / black box system as "magic" or "creative".
  - newzino 8mo ago
    [flagged]
pancsta 8mo ago
AI automates deterministic tasks, in a non-deterministic way. Repetitiveness just gives you a pipeline.

12 points by cadabrabra 8mo ago

adrianwaj 8mo ago

Well, wouldn't it be great if you had a barcode scanner next to your trashcan, and scanned everything that went into it. Then OpenClaw or something similar found the most inexpensive (and timely) replacement for it and then ordered it for you. It could also keep an inventory and work out when to hold off on the order while thinking about your stock levels, the expiry dates and perishability. It could also communicate with other Assistants in the area to get bulk discounts or arrange group deliveries. (Robotaxi or drone drop-off?) Seems like the sweetspot of "repetitive in structure" and "repetitive in specifics" as mentioned by Newzino below. The Assistant could also propose alternative products or find out what is in season and fresh. So repetitive, but also efficient and effective. Time-saving, money-saving, life-affirming. Is that too optimistic for a very common and mundane task (grocery shopping)?

tjr 8mo ago

Seeing a lot of claims about using AI to write "boilerplate" and other repetitive bits of code, I was somewhat surprised, as I have historically written my own code generation tools to spit out repetitive, formulaic code. I didn't need AI; I just needed to understand what I wanted and write a script for it. I suppose that generative AI was seen as such a boon to writing boilerplate because it could do so without you having to specifically program anything; it was trained on enough sufficiently-close examples that it could pull it off without a thorough description.

nicbou 8mo ago

I am generally skeptical about AI but I do see the benefit here. I write a bunch of widgets for my website. They're little calculators that use common components and apply simple logic. Think unit conversion or date arithmetic. These currently take a few hours to write, and most of the work is just wiring things together in a predictable way: template, tests, common form controls. I think that this would be a very good case for AI.

jjice 8mo ago
I've automated the writing of many of these kinds of things away with LLMs over the last year. I'd recommend giving it a shot. Another tangential use is to ask it to see if there are better abstractions that can be applied that maybe you haven't thought of yet. I find it's not the majority case that it offers a suggestion I like, but I have found it to be good some of the time. Worth the time of asking, at least.
- nicbou 8mo ago
  This is cool! I set some time aside to experiment with it in February. If I can keep the human aspect while removing the tedium, I would be very happy.

gtsteve 8mo ago

Perhaps your supposedly unique work is more repetitive than you thought: it just has a decision tree that's difficult to model with a regular algorithm, and annoyingly, it turns out you can just brute force that decision tree if you have enough electricity. Unless your job is cutting-edge research where you are truly making new scientific discoveries and methods, you're just combining other peoples' ideas into a new unique package and selling it. The truly valuable work is to notice that there is an underserved market and figure out how to meet their needs.

paulcole 8mo ago

Use the AI to make the “machine” that does the repetitive work? I’m not a programmer but that’s what I’ve done. In the past I would’ve needed either to learn how to code or hire someone.

newzino 8mo ago

[flagged]

tacostakohashi 8mo ago
You _could_ write non-AI tools for those examples. That's basically what sonarqube, coverity, lint, etc... are. They might even do a better job, with better correctness and deterministic results. There are also plenty of code generation / templating tools available. Maybe there are other tasks where AI offers novel capabilities, like interacting with humans, but at least for those two examples I think a lot of people are really just distracted by the novelty of AI, and perceiving the results of non-deterministic / black box system as "magic" or "creative".
- newzino 8mo ago
  [flagged]

pancsta 8mo ago

AI automates deterministic tasks, in a non-deterministic way. Repetitiveness just gives you a pipeline.