The Iferia Techcast
00:05:15 · Anne Cantera, Ezekiel Iferia
[00:05:15] S1: I think that whole AI took that person's job thing is not a reality yet. I think it could become a reality, but right now that is not what these layoffs are about. But again, because they own the media, that's the spin they're putting on it for I don't know what reason because a bunch of tech CEOs just backpedaled on that whole, oh, yeah. No. It... It's not gonna take people's jobs. That's what they said last week, right, after saying, oh, there's gonna be a devastating hit to human employees. So I don't I don't know the strategy. I don't understand their strategy. Maybe there isn't one, and they're just figuring it out as they go along. But I really do think this period of time will be a stain on the general leadership of tech, in the future because the the the rollout has been very messy in many different ways. But, you know, I think the biggest takeaway is these layoffs, they're... That are... They're blaming on AI have nuance. It's not because AI took the jobs. Right? It's because the human leadership fired those people to keep their... The the the money from that payroll to put it towards other things. That's the biggest misconception is that AI is... Took those jobs. That's not what happens. [00:06:43] S0: Ah. Ah. Interesting. So... And you're saying that AI actually hasn't taken any job yet. It's just the leadership, you know, restrategizing and, you know, laying off people to, you know, use the budget for other things?
00:06:43 · Ezekiel Iferia, Anne Cantera
[00:06:43] S0: Ah. Ah. Interesting. So... And you're saying that AI actually hasn't taken any job yet. It's just the leadership, you know, restrategizing and, you know, laying off people to, you know, use the budget for other things? [00:06:58] S1: Exactly. And I do think that those those AI layoffs will come. Right. Yeah. I built adjusting systems that could do work of an intern. Right? So... And we've already seen that junior position... It's... They're so shortsighted. Juniors are not getting hired, generally. So what happens when you're not training the workforce of the future and you're not putting resources in your younger people? What's gonna happen? What what happens when when the resources you're using now are gone and you don't have any any... Anybody to take the place? Are they betting that AI will be so good that they won't need any humans? It's it's ludicrous, and it's shortsighted, but that's also very typical of corporate leadership. Nothing really matters the next quarter. So, you know, this is this is typical playbook, but also, hopefully, that playbook will start to fail so spectacularly that they will have to become a little more human centered in their approach. Because if nobody's working, who's gonna buy their products? Nobody's earning money and nobody's work [00:08:09] S0: Yeah. Right? You need to be employed to get the money to purchase a product.
00:08:09 · Ezekiel Iferia, Anne Cantera
[00:08:09] S0: Yeah. Right? You need to be employed to get the money to purchase a product. [00:08:14] S1: Right. So one of the things I talk about all the time, imagine a world where it was easy to keep your family fed and housed. Right? I live in one of the most expensive zip codes. Not the most, not in Beverly Hills. Don't don't don't. But where I live, the taxes are very high, houses are very expensive. People in their twenties don't get to buy houses here. People in their thirties don't buy houses here. You have to save from the time you're in your twenties to the time you're in almost your forties just to make an... Save enough money to put a down payment, not even buy a house, just put a down payment. If if if food and shelter wasn't so hard, imagine what people would spend their time and money on. It'd be a different world. [00:09:08] S0: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Anne, you you you see that, you know, while AI is not really taking jobs like the media puts it, but you said there's a time that it will come. A time will come where that will be the case. How far are we looking for that to be the reality? [00:09:30] S1: Next year. [00:09:32] S0: Oh, that's close.
00:09:32 · Ezekiel Iferia, Anne Cantera
[00:09:32] S0: Oh, that's close. [00:09:34] S1: It's close. It's close. I say that only because I'm part of a group called the Agentyx Foundation, and they are the best builders in this space that I've seen. And the things they build are both brilliant and terrifying, and they are, like, two years ahead of the majority. So I'm I'm I'm guesstimating about a year, eighteen months, two years based on their work because I think they're, you know, eighteen months, two years ahead of most. So, and I belong to a lot of groups. I probably belong to a 100 different AI groups. That particular one has some of the most futuristic building, period. So, yeah, I I... But I also... So it also will depend on what you do. Right? But if if your AI can replace an intern, again, you still need interns because you're still going to need humans working and building the workforce of the future. And since the very beginning, my mantra has been assistance, not replacements. But that leads us to another really short sighted strategy of tech leadership where they want what's called the super IC. Have you heard that terminology? [00:10:58] S0: No. Not sure about that.
00:10:58 · Ezekiel Iferia, Anne Cantera
[00:10:58] S0: No. Not sure about that. [00:11:00] S1: Okay. So super IC means individual computer... Contributor, super individual contributor, meaning you can have a team of 20 and get it down to two super ICs with a c... With AI. Right? So if two people with the augmentation of AI can do the work of 20, they salivate at the idea of laying off those 18 people, paying those two a little bit more, and pocketing all that money. That's... I... I've literally seen them salivate over that idea at a CTO conference that I went to. And, again, shortsighted. You have two people doing the work of 20. What happens when one of those people is sick or hit by a bus or quits or, again, super shortsighted. You're not... It it... It's like it's like a garden. Right? Plant a beautiful garden. You harvest everything from it, and you don't plant another one. You're going to go hungry. But they... But because you have the harvest in front of you right now, you're not worried about going hungry next year because you're blinded by what's in front of you in the moment. And that's typical. That's typical C suite thinking. [00:12:24] S0: Alright. So... And, you know, let's go into the topic of ethical AI. Know, that that last word, it's become a buzzword these days. What exactly does it mean, you know, when you strip it off all the technical jargons and, you know, remove the tech... Terminology. So what exactly does it mean in actual design of a product or system?
00:12:50 · Anne Cantera
[00:12:50] S1: So it's interesting. I think every single podcast I've been on has asked me this question. I've refined my answer, so you'll prob... Hopefully, you'll get a good answer. It means different things to different people, for one. Right? There is the the the one camp who is like, none of it's ethical. You shouldn't use it. We should shut it down. That's not gonna happen. Right? This group of people have so much power and money that we, the people, are not easily going to shut down that technology and make it go away. The the people whose books and art and music and everything who's been stolen and and used, I think, should be compensated. I have a friend who works in that space. He helps people sue and get settlements and get paid for their IP that's been stolen. There's the environmental issue. I think every single tech company should be made to do water conservation, environmental conservation. I think it should just be par for the course. That's not happening, but I hope it will. For me, what it meant was, how can I use this technology to help people? And my answer to that was by consulting for underserved businesses, whether the business is small, minority owned, female owned, veteran owned. So for me, that's what I do. I left enterprise, and now I have... My consultancy works as much as possible with exactly those types of businesses. Because in my mind, a small business can use AI as an equalizer and an elevator. Right? They can do things with it that they probably couldn't afford to do by hiring. If they can't afford to hire and they need help, what are they supposed to do? Also, I work I work with some founders who work 80 a week because they can't just yet bring people on. There aren't a lot of people who are skilled the way they're skilled. And if I I give them hours of their life back, and that... Especially to, like, a single mom who's trying to run her own business, those hours of her life back are really a gift for her, and I feel good about that at the end of the day. So that's what it meant for me. Like, how can I work in this space and feel good about it and and feel ethical? So when you ask me what ethical AI means, it... For me, it means not building tech that's gonna put people out of work and helping people who are otherwise overlooked.