K_N

Wait are you under the impression that people actually know they're talking to machines? Most of the time they have no idea. In most cases they don't even need to call in.

Already got those actually. One of my company's competitors has an AI personal shopper.

You don't think the machine can learn when it's appropriate to make exceptions? The machine could be given base rules by management and be more efficient at retaining customers AND saving money than every agent on your floor after a day's call volume. You severely underestimate neural networks.

Mostly tech support so far. Think ISPs and Phone companies. We're expanding though. And yeah it's gonna be quite some time until the AI can take your position - but not as long as you might think. It'll happen before I'm old enough to run for president.

Here's the thing though - all it takes is one successful call for an ML instance to learn how to solve a particular issue - after that ALL of them, out of millions across different companies and continents know how to solve that issue too. Every human needs to be taught. Every AI learns and teaches every other instance of the AI at the same time. Imagine if your one co-worker that's dumb and figured out how to handle one emotional customer worked like an AI - suddenly every support agent in the world would know how to solve that same situation.

The data is already there. My company alone has already enabled 30+ domestic and international firms to cut their call center sizes down by 75% - and they're seeing increased customer satisfaction and retention. Most cases that took 5-10 minute phone calls are now solved in less than 10 text messages to an automated agent.

Human learning has a stopping point. Machine learning doesn't. Within our lifetimes machine learning will surpass human learning, and in an instant they'll be twice as intelligent. Then four times as intelligent. Etc, etc. People like to say that by 2100 the only things humans will need to do is the arts, but to be honest we already have algorithms creating critically acclaimed compositions of paint, prose and music indistinguishable from those of human artists. Humans will soon be obsolete, and it's my job to get us there faster.

Maybe when I was working desktop support I would have. These days I try not to mention how much I make either. I just leave it at "a lot".

People hate talking to machines because machines don't understand them. Our AI already figures things out faster than actual service reps. It's just a matter of time.

Yeah I think I'm the only person I really know in our profession that actually makes as much as people think we all make.

Yeah same... I need to get married and hand over my debit cards to a partner that can handle money honestly.

Puts call center operators out of a job, basically.

I make a bit too much to worry about that anymore but I keep buying gadgets and shit

Yeah that's why I started moving out of LAMP stack stuff. Even with the security side of things, the industry is moving on. AI/ML is the future and probably the end point of the industry.

As in 3 months ago.

Yeah I'm pretty sure after this job the only employment related worry I'm ever going to have is finding people that actually have enough money to pay me.

wat

Idk I still end up broke at the end of every paycheck. I need to stop buying expensive shit. I built my roommate a new computer out of my own pocket last week because hers sucked and I felt bad for her.

I moved to a better position in April. I'm senior engineer for an ML development team now.

I don't know what that is, but it sounds intriguing.

Now that I'm in a senior position over a lot of employees myself I never get to stop fucking working.

I've been working all weekend too. I never get to stop. Kill me.

You probably got a point. Um... ok I don't generally see a problem with age differences for adults but uhh.... 20 years is a bit much.

Oh I know that, I'm just sayin it's probably not worth the effort to find someone who wont. Get you a best friend that loves you and someone else to bone you and all is good.

Mac 'n cheese. Not like, kraft. Real stuff from scratch, baked in the oven. Preferably with some bacon in it.