AI - it’s the future?

[Carth]

Exactly my thinking Hugh.
Yes there will be some 'high tech' jobs always available, but they won't be going to any of the lesser educated people struggling to find work.

Fewer jobs, more unemployment, benefit cutbacks, more frustration . . more anger.

I can see it leading to a 'let them eat cake' scenario . . and it won't be torches and pitchforks.

[Dude111]

I dont wanna make anyone mad,if staff wants to delete my reply they can.. i wont post in this thread again ok??

AI is horrible..... Its intrusive and yes being forced on us more and more...

I read cars are gonna start having AI cameras in them... If I had a car and it had one of those,I would smash the camera and take it out!!

[Stephen]

As you are using antiquated technology I think you are safe there!

[admars]

you're all focusing on the negatives - what about the increase in productivity?

what about it being used in medical research?

how about in fire and rescue?

There was a company saying that people were worried in their industry about using AI would be a problem, and they'd lose job, but interestingly, they don't have enough skilled workers in that field, so some do the work, while others train real people, and other train AI so the can try and meet demand, i forget what it was now, but it was a traditionally skilled manual task using tools.

[Carth]

Good point about medical research, developing protection against nasty viruses etc, also 'technology' helping diagnosis (MRA scans) and surgeons performing complicated operations and the life support during & after.

We're not quite at the stage of the 'Medibot' yet, where you lie down on a table and the AI machine does everything . . . as I said though, not quite at that stage . . yet

Originally Posted by admars

you're all focusing on the negatives - what about the increase in productivity?

what about it being used in medical research?

how about in fire and rescue?

There was a company saying that people were worried in their industry about using AI would be a problem, and they'd lose job, but interestingly, they don't have enough skilled workers in that field, so some do the work, while others train real people, and other train AI so the can try and meet demand, i forget what it was now, but it was a traditionally skilled manual task using tools.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/...rrer=deep-link

Banking giant Standard Chartered has become the latest major company to announce job cuts as it increases its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

The firm, which has its headquarters in the UK, said it will cut more than 15%, or around 7,800, of its back-office roles by 2030…

… Standard Chartered is not the first financial services firm to shed roles as AI takes on more work currently done by humans.

In February, Singapore's biggest bank, DBS, said it expected to cut about 4,000 contract and temporary roles over the next three years.

Huge AI-related job losses are expected to hit technology industry workers and graduates particularly hard.

Several big tech firms, most of which are spending huge sums on building tools and infrastructure for AI technology, have made major job cuts this year.

In April, Facebook owner Meta said it will cut thousands of jobs next month as it spends more than ever on AI projects.

The company told employees that it planned to cut 10% of its workforce - roughly 8,000 staff. It said it would also not fill thousands more open jobs it had been hiring for.

Amazon announced in January that it would lay off more than 30,000 workers, while Oracle laid off more than 10,000 workers.

https://www.britishchambers.org.uk/n...hat-is-coming/

However, around one in ten firms have moved beyond generic tools like ChatGPT and Copilot into deeper, bespoke AI integration, and it is in this group that the economic consequences are already showing: approximately one fifth report staffing reductions attributable to AI, and bespoke AI adopters are roughly three times more likely to have restructured job roles. The firms furthest along the adoption curve are the ones already cutting and reshaping their workforces, and that should tell us a great deal about what the next twelve months will look like for everyone a step or two behind them...

… Morgan Stanley’s research, published in late January, found that UK firms using AI for at least a year report net job losses of 8% over the past twelve months, the highest rate among major economies surveyed and roughly double the international average...

… As the Boston Consulting Group argued in April, the nearer and broader effect of AI is not simple elimination but redesign. Its modelling suggests that over the next two to three years 50% to 55% of jobs in the United States will be reshaped by AI, while 10% to 15% could be eliminated over roughly five years…

… The AI tools that British businesses are using to replace British workers were not built in this country, the profits from them do not remain in this country, and the new jobs that the technology companies keep promising will be created by AI are overwhelmingly not appearing in this country. Hinton warned in November 2025 that the big technology companies are betting on AI causing massive job replacement because that is where the big money is going to be, and what he is describing, whether he intended to or not, is a transfer of economic value out of the British workforce and into the balance sheets of overseas technology firms. British businesses that respond to AI by freezing or cutting headcount and buying in more software are not just hollowing out their own organisations, they are actively participating in that transfer outside of Britain.

TL: DR

Some organisations are using AI for productivity increases, most intend to use it for productivity increases and job losses, and most new jobs created by AI will not be in this country.

Originally Posted by Jaymoss

In office 365 there is a simple toggle on off File Options Co Pilot enable co pilot in both word and excel

There should be, but its simply not there.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by Paul

I'm sure its useful in some instances, its of little use to me at work.
They are still trying to force it on us, even when we have little use for it.

I don't know what line of work you are in, but are you sure you are thinking through how you might be able to apply AI usefully? The fact that your employer is encouraging you to use it would indicate to me that perhaps, just perhaps, you are resistant to changing the way you do things. For your own sake, please think about that, because maybe there's something you're missing, and not embracing it now could put you behind your colleagues, who may be working less hard than you but achieving more. That could ultimately put your job in danger.

Have you checked how your colleagues are using it? I do think that would be a worthwhile thing to do.

I have found it immensely useful. It has constructed difficult letters for me and prepared presentations, and I can tweak it if I need to put it in a particular context.

I've never used it with Co-Pilot - never felt the need - but to be honest, I've not bothered to use it to date because I want to keep control of what I'm doing. That may be just me worrying about something that turns out not to be any problem at all, but that's the mental block I have!

I hope that helps, Paul, it's well meant.

[Carth]

We may have an indication of 'the future of AI' here, from Mr Starmer and his cronies.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3ry1zpyz0et

Today's defence investment plan will be backed by £298bn of funding over the next four years, the Ministry of Defence has said, with key projects including:

Over £8bn which will go towards the global combat air programme, building a new stealth fighter jet alongside Japan and Italy
More than £63bn on strengthening the UK's nuclear deterrent, including funding submarines, a new warhead and 12 F35A fighter jets
£26bn on Project Royal Oak, aimed at upgrading UK naval bases including those at Faslane, Portsmouth and Devonport
Over £5bn on drone transformation, including £650m towards autonomous systems such as drones and uncrewed ground vehicles
Nearly £2bn for integrating the armed forces through the new digital targeting web framework, for destroying identified targets faster
£790m on greater protection for UK homeland and overseas bases from threats, as well as a new defence operations centre, expanded counter drone systems, directed energy weapons investments and upgraded missiles for Type 45 destroyers
£11bn on increased weapons stockpiles including long-range strike weapons, cruise missiles and one-way effectors. The MoD says it will have built at least six new energetics factories by 2030
£900m of spending is on efficiency and reform procurement, including £500m on improving AI and workforce transformation productivity and £400m on setting up the multilateral defence mechanism
£100m on the prime minister’s rapid AI delivery taskforce, as well as a further £115m on raising the UK's defences against AI threats

There's a lot of AI in there, and we're not the only country doing stuff like this.
Along with all the stuff being built/designed there's also the need for it to be secure (£115 million at todays prices), and the better AI gets, the better the tools hackers have, and the better security is needed (vicious circle).
Of course, forgetting AI for a moment, apparently everyone has a price they'll sell out for (even me, although I'm cheap because I don't really know anything), and with all this 'futuristic' attack/defend hardware (which everyone will have) all over the place it only takes one piece of malicious code to kick things off.

Skynet? nah, not yet, but in 15 years time?

[jfman]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I don't know what line of work you are in, but are you sure you are thinking through how you might be able to apply AI usefully? The fact that your employer is encouraging you to use it would indicate to me that perhaps, just perhaps, you are resistant to changing the way you do things. For your own sake, please think about that, because maybe there's something you're missing, and not embracing it now could put you behind your colleagues, who may be working less hard than you but achieving more. That could ultimately put your job in danger.

Have you checked how your colleagues are using it? I do think that would be a worthwhile thing to do.

I have found it immensely useful. It has constructed difficult letters for me and prepared presentations, and I can tweak it if I need to put it in a particular context.

I've never used it with Co-Pilot - never felt the need - but to be honest, I've not bothered to use it to date because I want to keep control of what I'm doing. That may be just me worrying about something that turns out not to be any problem at all, but that's the mental block I have!

I hope that helps, Paul, it's well meant.

Maybe he knows best in the hypothetical use cases for his own job? Just because “an employer” is caught on the hype train does not mean it is automatically the case it will be useful.

A mere few years ago I was aware of a series of events by supposedly serious consultancies, aimed at the private and public sectors, telling us how the world’s problems will be solved on the blockchain. Turns out non-fungible tokens and jpeg images of apes did not in fact solve the worlds problems.

All of the people I know “embracing” AI happen to be the people with the least knowledge or expertise in their sectors, for whom it offers a shortcut to - as you suggest - produce vaguely viable letters or presentations that pass the sniff test to the untrained observer. Complex problems always requires experts to both guide and test the veracity of the outputs.

[Carth]

There were quite a few people wearing the 'gullible' hat when those 'non-fungible tokens and jpeg images of apes' hooked those who liked a new shiny bauble to display.

I could never understand what they were thinking myself . . if they were actually thinking.

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I hope that helps, Paul, it's well meant.

I dont doubt you mean well, but no, AI is of no use to what I do (my team dont use it either).

As I said, I'm sure some find it useful, but in my job, its really not.
For the record, in my job, I do not do presentations, or write letters.

As to the company, I think they bought a load of co-pilot licences and are now trying to get people to use it - to justify the expense (not a great reason IMO).


As an example, think about keeping CF going, I dont need AI to maintain the server.
Plus all those AI bots scraping away at the site is extremely detremental.

https://hai.stanford.edu/assets/file...eport_2026.pdf

There's a lot of info in this Stanford University report, but one point really stood out for me

The United States hosts the most AI data centers, with the majority of their chips fabricated by one Taiwanese foundry. The United States hosts 5,427 data centers, more than 10 times any other country, and it consumes more energy than any other country. A single company, TSMC, fabricates almost every leading AI chip, making the global AI hardware supply chain dependent on one foundry in Taiwan—though a TSMC-U.S. expansion began operations in 2025.

We've been told "the future is AI", and it appears to be dependant on one foundry in a country that is under constant threat from it's very large neighbour, China.

A single point of failure for the World's economy - what could possibly go wrong?

[Carth]

South Korea is also quite near China

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q2pwzngjqo

South Korea unveils $880bn chip and AI investment plan.

South Korea has unveiled plans for at least $880bn (£666bn) of investments to build out the country's chip manufacturing and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in the coming years.

As you say "what could possibly go wrong?"