AI and the Future of Work: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace, Business, Ethics, HR, and IT for AI Enthusiasts, Leaders and Academics
00:35:47 · Jeremy Burton, Dan Turchin
Not only are we trying to go at a million miles an hour, we're trying to do it at a million miles an hour while the sand is shifting under our under our feet because the the, you know, the models themselves are still advancing quite dramatically. [00:36:03] S1: So there could be time when observability owns evals kind of [00:36:08] S0: Yes. I I I think it's a it's a it's a critical component for sure. [00:36:14] S1: Each week on this podcast, we talk about the future of work. And one of the things I'd like to get your perspective on as a leader is this tension that we all face right now. There's obviously a limitless amount of work to be done. Work... You know, the the amount of work to be done isn't going away. It's not shrinking. It's only growing. And yet there's this trope about, you know, reduce reduce the size of our organizations, you know, prevent bloat dot dot dot without editorializing. I would just love to get your perspective on, you know, as a leader, growing an organization, super ambitious. Does the team... How does the team look different in one, two, you know, maybe three years down the line?
00:36:58 · Jeremy Burton
[00:36:58] S0: Yeah. I think you... You've you've always got... With new technology, you've you've always gotta reexamine, like, what is work? What work for for for, like, an employee? If there are clearly things that can now be automated and and it's... And and that was a large part of someone's job, then I I guess, you know, you you you know, the role has changed. And there's no... To me, that's been the entire history of technology. I mean, a hundred years ago, you know, like, eighty percent of The US were were... Was agriculture and farmers, and then the tractor came along, and we're like, oh my god. We're we're doomed. And it turns out we were okay. You know? And I feel like, yeah, the the LLM is is sort of the the the modern day tractor. And right now, I think what's very hard for for for us humans to to to see past is what new work will be created. I... I'm generally an optimist on most things. I mean, look, I I I loved all the coverage recently around, the the almost trip to the moon or the trip around the moon. But it's like, okay. We did this, guys. Like, how many years ago? Two years after I was born, and I'm really old. And it's like, okay. What what problems can we now conceive because we're not dealing with minutiae? If you think about... I mean, supersonic flight travel. Right? We did that in the early seventies. Right? We don't have a supersonic jetliner today. So there's a part of me thinks like, okay. We we we can only conceive that a job that did x, y, and z today, well, x and y is taking care about AI, therefore, you know, we we don't need that job anymore. But if you look at the... If you take a step back and say, what does this technology enable? If we're operating upper level of abstraction, what problems can we now reason about that we could never reason about What things can we now achieve that we could never achieve before? What work can we now do that we could never do before? It's... I think it's impossible for us to to conceive of that until it sort of hits us between the eyes. You know? It was impossible to conceive of, like, the Hoover Dam beef... You know, when we just had shovels. You know? That that that... You know? So, you know, I I I feel like right now what's healthy as a leader is you have to examine the work that your team is doing. You have to examine whether that can be done by AI.
00:39:35 · Jeremy Burton
The reason is if you don't examine it, your competitor is examining it, and they're gonna be able to move faster and do it for less and blah blah blah than than than you. And then it's also the job of a leader to think about, okay. Given that we're moving five x as fast, what can we now add to the road map that we couldn't do before? You know? I I am still quite bullish on the case for software engineering and software engineers. I I just think we'll be able to take on wild projects that we couldn't ever conceive of. I do think education will have to change. Right? I I I feel like all of these great things that were proven to be not that useful in software engineering back when I did computer science are actually more relevant than ever. Things like architecture design. You know, it... Like, good practices around architecture and design will allow you to define a much better system for AI to go off and implement. But I think the last forty years, we've tended to dive straight into implementation, and generally hack away or rewrite, and probably not employ great software engineering practices. Right? The nice thing now is implementation is promising to be free. That doesn't mean to say software engineering is free. You know? You you can still mess it up with cogeneration.
00:41:01 · Dan Turchin
[00:41:01] S1: Brilliant answer. Everyone listening, when you need a dose of positivity about what... What's what's ahead for humans, go ahead and replay that one. It is the case that we're gonna have more time to dream bigger dreams, and I think that's net net positive for humanity. Hey, Jeremy. I'm about out of time. I gotta get you off the hot seat, but you're not going anywhere without answering one last important question for me. So rewind the clock back to the kid from Surrey getting off the plane, getting ready to meet Marc Benioff for the first time. What's your advice to that kid? What do you wish that you would know in the van that you know now?
00:41:40 · Jeremy Burton, Dan Turchin
[00:41:40] S0: You know, it it... A career is a long time. And I think when you're young, ambitious, you you can't really comprehend, like, whatever, 30 in in the tech industry, and you're in a hurry. And I think the... Particularly in in in Silicon Valley, like, your superpower is your network. I actually wish I kept in touch with more people. I've met folks over the years who've been very, very good at this. Because all those folks that, you know, you kick around with when you first start your career, those folks become, you know, leaders and... Of quite often huge companies. I mean, you know, Mark has done, you know, quite well at Salesforce. The the product manager I worked with for for for Oracle eight was Thomas Curian, who, you know, has a has a decent job over at Google Cloud. And and so, yeah, I I I think you feel like you can do it all yourself. I think when you're young, it... It's like sort of get out of my way. I'm here. But actually, the superpower ends up in your network and and who you can work with, and a lot of that is who you keep in touch with and who you build relationships with. And so, yeah, I wish I'd I wish I'd probably valued that much earlier in in my career. But, yeah, it was the best decision I ever made to actually get on that plane. I will say that as well. [00:43:03] S1: Hateful. Well, good. Good advice. Jeremy, where can the audience learn more about you and the great work that you and your team are doing?
00:43:03 · Dan Turchin, Jeremy Burton
[00:43:03] S1: Hateful. Well, good. Good advice. Jeremy, where can the audience learn more about you and the great work that you and your team are doing? [00:43:13] S0: No. So we we are... Social media is probably the best on on on LinkedIn observing. We are still... I think we're just moving our website under snowflake, snowflake.com/observability. I'm sure it... It's gonna be. But, yeah, follow us on LinkedIn. Follow us via the blog. Actually, that's a good place to find the latest and greatest. [00:43:36] S1: Brilliant. Well, as the world changes, we'll we'll have you back, and we'll we'll see how some of these big ideas that you posed are faring in the real world. Right? This is this is great. Thanks for hanging out. [00:43:47] S0: Alright. Thank you. Thanks for the invite. [00:43:49] S1: Yeah. Well, that's all the time we have for this week on AI and the future of work. As always, I'm your host, Dan Turchen from PeopleRain. And, of course, we're back next week with another fascinating guest. [00:44:08] S0: From people rain making us better. [00:44:10] S1: We learned about AI for humans. We're ready to conquer the future that's all for now. [00:44:19] S0: See you [00:44:19] S1: next time.