Beyond the Avi

@BowTiedTrance @OwenGregorian You think this prediction is unique?

@OwenGregorian Like I've said -- and our predictions are looking good at this point -- the real danger of AI is the Executive Class who is going all-in (and drag us all with them) before they understand what they're dealing with. Which major corporation will go bankrupt first? 🤔

Bosses say AI boosts productivity – workers say they’re drowning in ‘workslop’ | Ramin Skibba, The Guardian Ken, a copywriter for a large, Miami-based cybersecurity firm, used to enjoy his job. But then the “workslop” started piling up. Workslop is an unintended consequence of the AI boom. It’s what happens when employees use AI to quickly generate work that seems polished – at least superficially – but is in fact so flawed or inaccurate that it needs to be heavily corrected, cleaned upor even completely redone after it’s passed on to colleagues. For Ken, the problem started after his company’s CEO laid off several of his colleagues and mandated that remaining workers use AI chatbots, saying it would boost their productivity. While initial drafts were a breeze to create, Ken and his co-workers had to spend more time rewriting, correcting errors and resolving disagreements between each other’s chatbots than if they had never used AI at all. “Quality decreased significantly, time to produce a piece of content increased significantly and, most importantly, morale decreased,” said the copywriter, who spoke under a pseudonym for fear of losing his job. “Everything got a whole lot worse once they rolled out AI.” Ken said the company’s executives shifted the blame to staff when they pushed back about AI-fueled productivity decreases. Ken’s experience reflects an emerging divide between employees and their leaders when it comes to AI: a recent survey of 5,000 white-collar US workers found that 40% of non-managers say AI saves them no time at all at work, while 92% of high-level executives say it makes them more productive. So what’s causing this workslop deluge? The answer is more complex than being simply a case of workers cutting corners. The real driving force connects back to the C-suite. Companies have spent billions on enterprise investment in generative AI. Some of them, like Block, Amazon, Dow, UPS, Pinterest and Target, have laid off human workers at the same time, attributing the cuts to AI’s potential productivity. Workers who remain feel pressured by their employers to use AI to produce more work, often with little guidance or training. A disconnect separates executives giddy about generative AI from workers – who are finding that AI merely makes their jobs harder. “People are being told to use AI, often without direction or support,” said Jeff Hancock, a co-author of the study that coined the term “workslop”, and a Stanford researcher and BetterUp scientific adviser. While Hancock believes that generative AI could eventually power tools that help workers improve efficiency, in many cases, the incorporation of AI is having the opposite effect. Hancock’s study, which is not yet peer-reviewed, surveyed 1,150 US desk workers, a subset within the total 5,000. The researchers found that 40% of workers had encountered workslop within a month, and then spent an average of 3.4 hours a month dealing with it – which the study estimates adds up to $8.1m in lost productivity for a 10,000-person organization. Kelly Cashin, a freelance product designer, told the Guardian she encounters workslop often. “It seems to be common to just copy and paste a bot’s message directly into chats or emails,” she said. At times, when she’s confused by work a colleague sent her, they’ll respond, saying: “Yeah, I’m not sure what AI meant by that” – meaning they’re effectively outsourcing judgment to the chatbot. “Although it is personally frustrating, I understand why people do this. There’s a lot of pressure to increase productivity compounded by serious uncertainty in the job market,” Cashin said. Philip Barrison, a University of Michigan MD-PhD student who surveyed staff while embedded in primary care clinics, found a similar workslop issue cropping up for medical staff who had been encouraged to use AI to generate email replies to patient questions. That approach was meant to save clinicians’ time. “Based on reporting and my own observations, it doesn’t,” Barrison said. Instead, many of the workers he spoke to described a lot of editing labor, frustration and concerns about data security and patients receiving AI-assisted emails with errors. Because the AI tools are optional, “once they get past the novelty [of the AI], they start ignoring it”, Barrison said. One reason employers are pushing generative AI in workplaces is because many companies are aiming to reduce their labor costs after investing in the tech, says Aiha Nguyen, who leads the Labor Futures program at the Data & Society non-profit research institute. But those investments haven’t paid off, or at least not yet. One of the conclusions of an often-cited MIT report found that 95% of firms aren’t seeing returns on their investments in AI. Other recent assessments from the software giant SAP and the professional services and consultant firm Deloitte report a larger fraction of businesses generating returns on investment, but they are still the minority. Businesses expect – or hope – better returns will materialize after two to four years, which is rather slow for technology investments, according to the Deloitte report. “The problem is, generative AI is often being presented as a general-use tool that can do anything, but the reality doesn’t work that way. So what could be creating part of the workslop is [AI’s] unclear mandate or use case,” Nguyen said. AI has become a sticking point as unionized workers negotiate the terms of new contracts, Dan Reynolds, research economist of the Communications Workers of America, said. Unions are demanding clearer mandates for the tech, and more worker input and control over how it’s used. “Firms are pretty open about using AI to streamline operations, and so a natural response is to interrogate what those tools can actually do and the power dynamics that surround their use,” said Sarah Fox, director of Tech Solidarity Lab at Carnegie Mellon University. Fox said she was skeptical when firms say they are deploying AI within their companies to improve productivity and efficiency and to help workers be better at their jobs. “Actually that obscures larger changes to labor dynamics,” and reduces workers’ autonomy rather than empowering them, she said. theguardian.com/technology/202…

@travismsnow It’s more insulting he thinks he’s a healer of any kind. Cuts to Medicaid, cuts to VA, cuts to USAID, ending suicide hotlines … The man hurts, he doesn’t heal

My wife summed up the whole Trump-Jesus meme perfectly: "Trump knows he's being ridiculous." Which is the opposite of someone who is blaspheming or claiming to be Jesus. It's a meme people. It's comedy. Just like you don't interpret the Proverbs in the same way you interpret Apocalyptic Literature, you don't interpret a meme like it's a religious manifesto. Plus, you have to put this, I think, in the context of Trump's argument with Pope Leo. The Pope literally claims to be the Vicar of Christ (i.e., one who acts for and in place of Christ on the earth). Hence Trump, in a cheeky way, is kind of saying, "I'm the real Pope," because he believes his foreign and domestic policies do more to promote health and stability in the real world than the policies of the Pope, who has said we should just have compassion on the Iranian regime and let them get nukes. It's really a jab at the Pope more than anything else. And it's kind of funny too if you can let yourself relax a little bit.

@fitnessfeelingz @Stix8886 Makes sense why he took it down than right? It’s so clearly isn’t Jesus! 🤡

@Stix8886 Light pours from the sky every day. It's called the sun and it's totally natural. Red and white robes are quite common, for example, in Catholicism. What distinguishes Christ, the Son of God, is his halo, which is not present here. Nor is there any Christian symbolism.

Saying this is a depiction of Christ is one of the most blasphemous things I've heard. There's no Cross, no halo, nothing suggest Christianity at all. Trump just looks like a kind of holy medicine man here, a common archetype.

@DR66350522 @EdKrassen Do you agree this is his worst mistake or would you choose a different one?

@EdKrassen I am as MAGA as it gets and everyone I know thinks the 4 of them have gone off the rails are nuts. They are right up there with the Flat Earthers and we never went to the moon crowd

WOW! President Trump just completely turned on Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Alex Jones and Megyn Kelly. This is probably his biggest mistake he's ever made. So much of the MAGA base looks up to these people, and this is going to get them questioning their loyalty to Trump. If Trump can turn on these people simply because they disagree with him, he can turn on anyone. TRUMP IS DONE! He knows it!

@DR66350522 @EdKrassen Do you agree this is his worst mistake or would you choose a different one?

@BowTiedTrance @JoshuaLisec Are you talking?

The ultimate "bad reviews from bad people are good reviews" for @JoshuaLisec Imagine giving a bad to review to the guy who popularized the "Mary Sue" AND the guy who said the thing about bad reviews.

@ingelramdecoucy Look up ‘Strawman argument’ in the dictionary, and there’s a link to this video 🤡

I think Adam Carolla described the Democratic Party media chaos strategy best

@MikeBales Mike Bales pitch for ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ reboot is pretty lit actually.

The Year is 2045, Donald J. Trump has been President for over 20 years. Congress has Impeached him 25 times but their BS is all lies and he’s still my President! 🤣🤡

@BowTiedTrance I did know that. Give us better queries

Did you know? Doomers and blackpillers do that in every area of life. We used to just call them Pessimists. It's an addiction, though. And a lack of imagination. It's entirely fixable, too, for those who'd rather enjoy things than constantly suck the toxic air of misery.

@creation247 @ZubyMusic @ScottAdamsSays Yes, there was such clarity when he was alive & now? Oy vey! Like if I was ever near a mass-shooting, I was hopeful to hop on his WhenHub app & charge people for my boots-on-the-ground, LIVE take! But now with him gone, I might (godforbid) seek help for any survivors. So lost.

@ZubyMusic @ScottAdamsSays I think there's a lot of confusion in the world right now because Scott is not around

My last public conversation with @ScottAdamsSays Uploading it here for posterity. Rest in peace. 💜

@TheBoschFawstin Trump, in the Mar-a-Lago bathroom, calling to the staff for more toilet paper

I drew this for an article by David Horowitz that Rush Limbaugh read on air in 2020. Flaws and all, he has virtues, and unlike his dishonest critics, he’s righteous. Finally retaliating against Iran makes him greater than Reagan. Oh, and he smoked leftists ‘on the right’ today👊🏻

@FrancoiseValle8 @SarahTheHaider 🤡

@SarahTheHaider I feel like the trajectory we are on is unchangeable. You cannot stop the left. Even if you win elections. The only thing that will make them change is to live with the consequences, which means things are going to have to get bad. Hopefully it doesn’t destroy the country first.

I think I'm done talking about politics this directly, at least on X. I love this country, and it breaks my heart.

@BowTiedTrance You never answered my question: who do you respect more, Scott Adams or Derren Brown?

Hypnotist Derren Brown demonstrates ... Speaking to the subconscious mind, by slipping SUGGESTIONS into STORIES. (aka "embedded commands") Milton Erickson would nod in agreement. Watch, take notes, then forget we ever spoke.

Scott Adams students were not confused this week

@BowTiedTrance Much like the guy that said “ I have the only jazz supper club in the area” and went out of business quickly … there might be a reason why no one has written that book before 🤣

Nobody had ever written a book that tied it all together. Hypnosis, self-trance, persuasion, body language, persuasive writing, affirmations, the brain science behind it. Nobody had ever written that book. So I wrote that book. Now you can read that book, and start cheating.

@chanwalrus @BowTiedTrance @AmericanDebunk x.com/erictrumpfan1/… What’s left of MAGA is the passengers in this boat; they acting like it’s all kosher & going to plan but the erratic driving belies the inevitable crash to come

@BowTiedTrance @AmericanDebunk I think he’s taking the right approach with this one. I think in war, especially when you’re fighting against religious zealots, nothing works against them like making them believe that their God is on your side.

This Trump post is elite. And you’ll start to see it too as you read along. You will love this breakdown. We all know about the impending deadline on Tuesday. The deadline creates urgency for Iran and gives Trump an extra negotiation chip that didn’t exist before. We all know this. But it gets better now. Trump is now branding the deadline. “Power Plant Day and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.” This branding is elite framing, as it turns an abstract military pressure into vivid, memorable visual events. People don’t remember vague threats. They remember branded days—like “D-Day” or “Shock and Awe.” Trump makes the destruction feel scheduled, inevitable, and almost celebratory. It sticks in the mind and signals total control. And notice how nonchalant it sounds. Trump didn’t go for epic, carnage-heavy branding. He branded it the way you’d casually announce National Potato Chip Day. That’s intentional. He’s making an apocalyptic-like event for Iran feel routine, even mundane, for the US. This makes the threat land harder because it flexes confidence and might. This is light work for America. Then Trump uses a direct threat. Zero diplomatic filter. It bypasses the usual State Department word salad and hits the human survival instinct. And the closer? “Praise be to Allah.” Oh. My. Goodness. He doesn’t just threaten their infrastructure- he mocks their worldview by hijacking their own religious phrasing right before promising devastation. This is too perfect. It’s a reminder who’s writing the script for their “impending” doom. This is calibrated dominance. Watch how the media spins it tomorrow. They’ll call it “unpresidential.” The people who get persuasion will see genius. What a time to be alive.

@diotyme @BowTiedTrance But thank god Elon saved free speech, ammirite?

@BowTiedTrance I once asked Grok about what reduces your reach on X. It basically described using X.

The new rules that govern the current xAI algorithm: - Likes mean nothing - Reposts mean nothing - Replies in the first 60 minutes mean everything Please start replying to my posts (if you like them) because it's the only way to teach xAI to stop prioritizing engagement bait.

@BowTiedTrance Wait, Scott predicted Matt Gaetz was going to be the next president, remember?

The persuasion skills of JD Vance are consistently underrated. How many will be caught flat-footed in 2028 because they weren't paying attention?

@JasonJournoDC @DailyCaller

🚨NEW: Victor Davis Hanson: "Scott Adams was very astute. They treated him so terribly, too — the cancel culture ... he reinvented himself and he was very successful with his own platform. And he was very logical and analytical." @DailyCaller

@diotyme @BowTiedTrance But thank god Elon saved free speech, ammirite?