To think Morrisons should be boycotted over their AI adoption?

[RobynRB]

Today Morrisons announced 200 head office redundancies due to AI adoption. I say we should boycott them as a warning to other supermarkets and companies not to go down this route. I know we are told this is inevitable and everyone just seems to be rolling over and let it happen, but we should at least try and the only weapon we really have is voting with our pounds (while we still have them).
Because honestly if you believe that we're all going to be sitting around spending free money while AI does all the work you need your head looking at.

What kind of life is it to spend your day in a drab and menial job that could be done by AI or a robot?

Theoretically, more people will be free to pursue more interesting and creative pursuits, for their own sake. But we'll need an education system and broader culture designed to prepare people for that.

It would be a nightmare world and basically the end of humanity. Completely unsustainable.

Nah.

Having worked at that head office, it must be this.

I refuse to believe they have become that effective at using new technology.

It won't matter at all. ALL large companies are going to be handing over jobs to AI, it's a done deal and there is nothing at all you can do about it. You'll be boycotting everyone in 5 years time if you try that.

AI has a lot of issues, is definitely not a therapist, should never be treated as a human, is often wildly wrong about simple facts, and is nobody's friend or confidante - not to mention issues songwriters and artists have.

But all that aside, there is certainly going to be an upsurge of different types of jobs because of new tech. There always is. When photography was invented there were protests about portrait painters losing their jobs. When factories started mass producing furniture, cabinet makers were livid. Now think of the hundreds of thousands of hours of work photography and factory furniture stores have added. There will be jobs you cannot even imagine yet which will come about because of AI.

The very word luddite comes about because the 19th century textile workers called Luddites (named for a fictional outlaw they claimed to operate out of Sherwood Forest) protested about automated machinery.

The ship has sailed, don't be a Luddite. King Knut couldn't hold back the tide either.

That will never happen. If AI could replace humans to the extent that a UBI were needed, hardly anyone would be paying tax. A government that has no money cannot pay UBI. It would also hit the tech bros hard, because no one would have any disposable cash to buy their crap.

All of this, of course, would depend on AI being intelligent, which it isn't, and able to replicate all the functions of a human being, which it can't. If it could, do you not think that governments would be seriously worried about the scope for societal collapse and would be banning the development of AI?

The bigger worry is the prospective collapse of the AI bubble. The value of these companies is ludicrously inflated because they all trade with each other at ridiculous prices. So what they are worth on paper is not supported by reality. When that bubble bursts, stock markets will crash and there will be a global recession of 1929 proportions. There's nothing we can do about that, but since a stock market crash is likely to make billionaires paupers overnight, we can all fervently hope that Elon Musk is one of them.

Yes, there is that too. It seems if they succeed we're screwed and if they fail we're screwed even harder. The thing is printing press etc didn't change things overnight and these 'new' jobs that will supposedly be created - apparently they aren't able to be done by AI for some reason that no one seems to be able to explain, right.
The AI nirvana is such a ridiculous idea, but I fear we are going to have twenty years of absolute chaos while they desperately try (and maybe achieve) it.

But yes, I agree, the tech bros vastly overestimate the ability of companies and especially councils to use it.

I already “boycott” them but not shopping there because they became shit. Filthy stores, empty shelves and expensive

I would do but I’m going to the mill later to smash up some looms, and I’ll need a sandwich on the way back.

So terrible that they weren't happy about being relegated to unskilled workers (the ones that actually kept a job) with lower wages and worse working conditions, being charged more and being unable to afford to live. Just as well the government treated them as radicalised terrorists and squashed them down, framing the discourse as them being stupid peasants who were frightened of machinery, eh?

I bet the roles were mundane back office jobs that are easy to replace. Likely the remaining staff are increasingly adopting AI to do the non-value add tasks that Morrisons have realised are easy to automate.

there is nothing anyone can do about this, other than ensuring they are in roles and skills that don't become irrelevant and easy to replace with a bot.

I agree with you OP but sadly people won't boycott if they can save a few pence. Most people are all talk complaining about the government or society and take no responsibility for their role. I've spent years refusing to shop anywhere that doesn't have staff on a till or queueing like a fool while others do self serve. I don't think I know anyone else who does this and if I tell people I get an eye roll. My colleagues buy everything from Temu or Shein and say how the city centre has gotten dangerous with all the boarded up shops and isn't it awful there are no jobs for young people. They see no irony. If people had pushed back, i mean really refused to embrace these changes when they began we wouldn't be where we are now. Collectively we are getting what we deserve and it's scary and depressing.

Ai is here. You can't stop it. You will have to boycott all large companies moving forward if that's your plan.

It's a done deal, King Knut. Worry about the things you can change, because you can't change this.

I can't see that it's going to be anything other than shit, though. AI has taken many of the creative jobs that people actually enjoyed, and now it's coming for the admin jobs which people don't necessary find fun, but at least tend to be clean, safe and conducive to a good work-life balance. Jobs requiring a high level of knowledge and/or research skills will also be under threat soon. I fear that many degrees will become worthless. AI will write the assignments for the students, mark them and take over most graduate jobs.

At least clinical staff will be safe for now, and AI will let the rest of us be hairdressers, agricultural workers, care assistants, caterers, drivers, cleaners, and refuse collectors. Unfortunately, the country won't need 30 million of these.

The effect of AI on jobs is going to be seismic. It will completely remove job opportunities from all sectors, particularly low entry jobs for office work. I see it like when the coal mines were closed. Whole industries are going to be decimated. And because the pace of change in this area is so fast there won’t be enough jobs created to offset it.

So what are we all going to do? On unemployment benefits?

The answer is to get into a line of work that AI can’t do, but given time, those type of jobs will be done by robots. They have already suggested that robots can be care givers to the elderly.

Humans are being made redundant. Scary times.

Trust me. If Morrisons go down the pan then a company like Tesco are not going to go 'ooo errrr it must be because customers didn't like their supposed AI adoption' and run away from AI with their tails between their legs.

The general consensus in the industry is that business shying away from it will be left behind, so I agree with PP the horse has bolted. Learn to embrace it.

Also, I agree with PP Morrisons are not cutting edge enough to have actually replaced colleagues with some super duper AI technology. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a cost cutting excuse to some extent. They are struggling.

I get it’s annoying with a trolley. But self checkouts are an amazing invention for people with a few items and who don’t need help except when there is some muppet letting their toddler put their goods through

Looking at the people on LinkedIn saying they’re at risk, they’re not admin roles at all.

i think the AI reference was just a smokescreen to make them look modern when in fact they’re just cost cutting because performance is poor

Other retail companies do this every week. Trust me. They just don’t announce it in this way.

I can't see how individual shops provides more high quality food.

My local greegrocer is convenient (Open All Hours Turkish food shop) but his veg isn't any better than Sainsbury's.

The food that comes from the farm will be the same, the wholesaler will be the same, the amount of time in the container from Australia/Kenya/Morocco will be the same...

Good idea. Then we can all give up work and spend a full day doing the weekly shop!

I can't imagine that boycotts will be effective. I think King Canute stood more of a chance when he commanded the tide not to come in.

If we had the collective will, and the means to express it effectively, to prevent dystopian trends in capitalism, we wouldn't be in the situation we are currently in, sucking in environment-destroying tat from China and stealing skilled health workers from developing countries while employment and productivity in the UK stagnate.

I really do not think this is the case. AI is already very advanced in my field but it simply cannot replace humans and it won’t be able to in future either. It can’t do feelings for one thing. Bevause it’s machine-based. It can pretend to do feelings but it can’t actually do them. Nor can it do human creativity, child-rearing, building domestic extensions, effective and safe psychotherapy, gardening, loads of things.

The fact we aren’t sending people down the pits any more is a good thing overall. It was dangerous, dirty work that gave people industrial diseases also.

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