We sat down recently with Battery Ventures general partner Dharmesh Thakker to talk about the AI technologies he’s most excited about, and where he sees them already creating billions of dollars in value.
I was chatting to a lawyer-person, and they were talking about AI replacing the work that junior lawyers do, much faster and at a fraction of the cost.
But its the junior lawyers that become seasoned lawyers and partners at law firms.
Seems like short term savings by not training new lawyers.
Yeah, and as a programmer-person I’ve pondered where new programmers will come from once AIs replace all the interns.
There’s a potential solution, though. Have you ever sat down with an AI and used it as a “tutor” while learning new stuff? It no doubt varies from person to person since different people learn different ways, but I’ve found it downright incredible how easy it is to learn when I’ve got an infinitely-patient AI I can ask to have walk me through new stuff. So maybe in future lawyers and programmers and whatnot can just skip the larval stage.
As a collaboration and learning tool, absolutely.
As a tool to speed up processes, potentially.
But as a “replace these jobs”, AI isnt there (yet). Anyone relying on it as such is, imo, setting themselves up to fail
Yup, and using AI as a tutor replaces tutors.
Its the problem with anything that increases productivity. Either people are expected to do more in the same time, or less people are needed to do the same work.
There is a balance to be struck.
New talent needs training and experience. If the current method of getting that is hands-on, and it gets replaced by AI, then talent and experience in the field will dry up. Or, qualifications to get into that career will take longer to train. Or, the path from entry level to senior level needs to be reassessed.
So, if a junior lawyer spends 4 years doing menial case work research before being able contribute in other ways, then that training needs to come from somewhere.
Replacing that menial work with AI (which will be able to do it faster) means there will be less entry level jobs, and higher level lawyers will be expected to do more work (“drive” the AI) and probably take on more clients.
Using AI to guide the juniors research will improve the juniors productivity, still give experience, however will likely reduce the number of entry jobs available.
Its probably the same arguments that a lot of blue-collar workers have made when automation replaced their jobs. Higher level machinists cut their teeth by doing more menial manufacturing jobs, less entry level jobs, less machinists, talent stagnation, etc
I was chatting to a lawyer-person, and they were talking about AI replacing the work that junior lawyers do, much faster and at a fraction of the cost.
But its the junior lawyers that become seasoned lawyers and partners at law firms.
Seems like short term savings by not training new lawyers.
Robbing young Americans of future opportunities to give the incumbents larger stacks of cash is what America is all about.
Yeah, and as a programmer-person I’ve pondered where new programmers will come from once AIs replace all the interns.
There’s a potential solution, though. Have you ever sat down with an AI and used it as a “tutor” while learning new stuff? It no doubt varies from person to person since different people learn different ways, but I’ve found it downright incredible how easy it is to learn when I’ve got an infinitely-patient AI I can ask to have walk me through new stuff. So maybe in future lawyers and programmers and whatnot can just skip the larval stage.
As a collaboration and learning tool, absolutely.
As a tool to speed up processes, potentially.
But as a “replace these jobs”, AI isnt there (yet). Anyone relying on it as such is, imo, setting themselves up to fail
If it lets a person doing job X do twice as much work, that’s effectively replacing a person in job X. There’s now half as many of those jobs needed.
Yup, and using AI as a tutor replaces tutors.
Its the problem with anything that increases productivity. Either people are expected to do more in the same time, or less people are needed to do the same work.
There is a balance to be struck.
New talent needs training and experience. If the current method of getting that is hands-on, and it gets replaced by AI, then talent and experience in the field will dry up. Or, qualifications to get into that career will take longer to train. Or, the path from entry level to senior level needs to be reassessed.
So, if a junior lawyer spends 4 years doing menial case work research before being able contribute in other ways, then that training needs to come from somewhere.
Replacing that menial work with AI (which will be able to do it faster) means there will be less entry level jobs, and higher level lawyers will be expected to do more work (“drive” the AI) and probably take on more clients.
Using AI to guide the juniors research will improve the juniors productivity, still give experience, however will likely reduce the number of entry jobs available.
Its probably the same arguments that a lot of blue-collar workers have made when automation replaced their jobs. Higher level machinists cut their teeth by doing more menial manufacturing jobs, less entry level jobs, less machinists, talent stagnation, etc