Newspeak

If you parse through those syllables, you may see that [Mr. Nadella]’s not only urging everyone to stop thinking of AI-generated content as slop, but also wants the tech industry to stop talking about AI as a replacement for humans. He hopes the industry will start talking about it as a human-helper productivity tool instead.
Microsoft’s Nadella wants us to stop thinking of AI as ‘slop’

What immediately jumped out about this for me was recalling the ad for Copilot that Microsoft ran during 2024's Super Bowl. I wrote a post about it on LinkedIn at the time. As far as I was concerned, the whole message of that ad was that Copilot was a replacement for people. At the risk of seeming narcissistic, I'm going to quote myself at length here, understanding that not everyone has access to LinkedIn.

For the people who dream of doing big things that are hard to achieve by oneself, Copilot positions itself as something that can help. But it does that, not by making the people in the spot better at what they're already doing, but by allowing them to do things that they'd otherwise ask of others. Commercials operate by showing a need, and offering a solution, and this one is no exception. But the need it appears to be solving is that of human collaboration. At no point in the ad does the viewer see two or more people collaborating on anything. In the world that the commercial shows, there are no teams... only individuals and Copilot. I can see the appeal to people who enjoy working alone, but I suspect it will heighten anxiety for others. If one's fear is that technology will drive isolation, or that AI will render one's skills obsolete, the message of this commercial is not reassuring.

In one scene, a young man asks for sign ideas for his classic truck repair shop. Copilot takes on the role of graphic designer. That scene would have been just as powerful showing Copilot helping a graphic designer to create even more ideas. Or helping "Mike" source specific information on a model of truck that he's repairing. It's A.I. as complement, rather than competitor. By showing Copilot as helping people be productive with the skills they already have, a commercial can avoid the appearance of pitting people against one another, or devaluing the knowledge and talents that they bring to the table.

This is what Mr. Nadella wants the industry to stop doing... the very thing that Microsoft itself was doing in that Super Bowl spot. While other big names in the generative automation business (not to mention journalists) have been predicting that generative automation will destroy jobs, Mr. Nadella understands that "we're making software that will render you unemployed, and perhaps unemployable," is bad PR. But I'm curious where this sentiment was during 2023, when the "Your everyday AI companion" spot was in production. After all, concerns (or hopes, depending on which side of the job market one was on) were already starting to mount. Because reducing the costs of productivity by lowering labor costs was the primary value proposition that generative automation was supposed to bring... not much different than any other sort of automation, really. A technology that leads to greater productivity but doesn't increase aggregate demand will pretty much always lead to lower employment in the absence of some other source of higher demand.

Even the skilled trades or vocations, which are now being touted as "'A.I.' proof" occupations are unlikely to be the safe havens that they're presented as. Sure, we don't have robots that can do home plumbing or electrical work yet, but if people crowd into those professions, were are their customers going to come from? I suspect that former knowledge workers subsisting on low-level service jobs aren't going to be clamoring for skilled tradesmen to come into their homes, and generative automation won't make their low-paying jobs pay any better.

Generative automation both making the pie larger and ensuring that more slices are sufficient for people to thrive needed to have been openly (and honestly) stated as the goal from the outset, because that's the only way that this doesn't cause what could be generations of disruption.

Oh, the Super Bowl advertisement? Here's the link to it... but you likely won't be able to see it... It's been made Private. But, of course, other people have posted it, so maybe this link will work, instead.